The Worst Possible Way to Fail at Learning Math

... is to become an academic crank.

Want to get notified about new posts? Join the mailing list and follow on X/Twitter.

The worst possible way to fail at learning math is to become an academic crank. It’s a sad fate that awaits well-intentioned math learners who lean intensely into creative output but never get their fundamentals in place.

The “crank” creates passionate but cringe math writeups where they vehemently argue claims that are completely wrong due to basic misunderstandings of division by zero, convergence/divergence, working with infinitesimals…

They are blind to these misunderstandings, which are obvious to anyone who has their foundational knowledge in place, but the crank refuses to take a disciplined approach to shoring up their foundations and instead just keeps cranking out utter trash.

Now, I don’t mean to knock projects – projects can be a super motivating and efficient way to learn when you’ve got the necessary prerequisite knowledge in place.

And I don’t mean to knock passionate exploration – doses of passionate exploration alongside a structured curriculum can do wonders for motivation.

All I’m saying is… learn your f*cking fundamentals!

And make that your primary focus until you’ve done so.

Foundational knowledge is not something you can skip. You can either accept that early in your learning journey, or you learn it the hard way as you

• (at best) waste lots of valuable time struggling and failing to learn from content/projects that are out of your depth, or,
• (at worst) turn into a crank who pours their heart and soul out into creative work that goes unappreciated by society because it's utter trash.

Want to get notified about new posts? Join the mailing list and follow on X/Twitter.