Playing Chess Like a Robot

Just about the number one Chess sin of mine is playing like a robot. That's much different from playing like a machine. You know what I'm talking about ... automatically occupying a file with a Rook, routinely developing your pieces, capturing towards the centre. I'm talking about blindly trusting the "principles" of Chess rather than looking at the specifics of the position.

I ran into such difficulties on the Black side of a King's Indian Petrosian System, where I "routinely" recaptured on f5 with a pawn. In principle, one wants to having big rolling pawns on the Black side of the King's Indian. I'm pretty sure I played this move without considering how White may change the pawn structure, and indeed after simply exchanges at f4, he completely immobilised my pawns, leaving me with a worse position.

How Should Black Recapture?