For me, I usually learn magic through reading books that were written by magicians from the past. I first learn a trick, or a skill then look up youtube or other websites for a video of somebody performing the trick/sleight. Then I just go on and practice the routine and try to perform it to different people.

This doesn't sound so much formulaic as it does deliberate and considered, and that is a good thing. The full post that I edited the above from shows a structured approach to incorporating new skills and effects into the broader context of a performance. It may initially start as play, but for it to be "play" for an audience, it has to be considered and crafted, and you give a viable blueprint to do exactly that.

I mostly will read a book all the way through, marking pages of things I know I want to look at closer. Just occasionally stopping to work something out right then an there.

I'll add to the above that I pretty much always have several "knuckle-busters" in the works. Most of the stuff I do, I can get the mechanics down fairly quickly by building on previous knowledge. But there are some things that I know *** well I'm never going to add to my set anytime soon, but I dabble from time to time anyway. Akira Fujii's Linking Cigarette, for instance. I still haven't been able to make that look good. But I pull out a couple cigarettes and work on it every few weeks. It leaves most of my practicing time for the stuff I'm actually seriously working on, but over the course of time, I might be able to add some really difficult stuff to my set. Again, comes down to playing. I play with stuff until it comes out looking like something I'm able to do, then I fit it into my routine.