"The longest path is the shortest and the shortest path is the longest" back when i was in school and onwards in the academic world, it was always said aloud t

"The longest path is the shortest and the shortest path is the longest" back when i was in school and onwards in the academic world, it was always said aloud that the quicker you grasp, the intelligent you were. A lot of students(i perceive - even now) were in rush to prove that they understood - many a times getting to the end of the book before understanding the basics. The momentary appalaud of "well said" and "hurray!" turned out to be a disease - a disease of skimming thru and finding the answers. This got into an habbit and now well embedded in my approach to even outside books. 20 years (outside school) and still counting on the skimming the book[most recently, I picked up a Math book (Intro to Analysis- as suggested Brad's earlier post)]. Struggling thru is a small part of the battle; mind plays the depression game while I try to search for a notation (the greek for complement of a set), while I don't give in as I used to, nowadays it plays the second game of age-"35 years and you don't know 'xyz'!". So yes, my the shortest path has been so long that I have not been able to put an end to it. </end-self-humiliation> "avoid isolation" would anyone suggest how to get by this? I work in the enterprise world, where the likes are 9-5/fix-the-bug-save-my-arse. I haven't met anyone whom I could ask about a notation or even discuss about this. I am shy to meet people (read- fearful).few people I did try to ask usually have the repulsive smirky grin. I looked for user groups in the local area (seattle-at present), but didn't find any. It would be awesome if someone tells me this proof of A-intersection-B-intersection-C is going to help in XYZ.