You don't actually have to specify the columns on an insert. If you don't you need to provide a value for each column in the order that they were created. However this shortcut syntax is error prone, any change to the database will probably break your code and it also stops you from using auto_increment/default columns.

mysql> create table test (a int, b char(1));
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.05 sec)

mysql> insert into test values (1, 'A');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.06 sec)

mysql> insert into test (a, b) values (2, 'B');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.06 sec)

mysql> select * from test;
+------+------+
| a    | b    |
+------+------+
|    1 | A    |
|    2 | B    |
+------+------+
2 rows in set (0.05 sec)
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