According to the trivium [0], the path to learning consists of a sequence: grammar; dialectic; and rhetoric. In my head I think of it in terms of vocab, logic,

According to the trivium [0], the path to learning consists of a sequence: grammar; dialectic; and rhetoric. In my head I think of it in terms of vocab, logic, and application (respectively). Notation may not be the hardest part. It is however (as you say) the first part. If our goal is to make math more readily accessable to the masses, perhaps the greatest immediate gains entail improving the notation to better reflect the concepts -- exactly because it is the first barrier. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trivium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trivium