^ Some people may be so conditioned to use tire levers during every install/removal that it may not occur to them to try without. But I think you learn valuable insights when attempting to guide the beads over the rim while keeping the slack in the bottom of the well, all by hand. Even if you do go back to using levers.

I'm firmly convinced that some people make the job way harder than it needs to be, by using levers for brute force and not understanding how slack works.