I think “mathematical maturity” is an important aspect of this discussion. Mathematical maturity is basically the ability to read a paper or textbook without as

I think “mathematical maturity” is an important aspect of this discussion. Mathematical maturity is basically the ability to read a paper or textbook without assistance. It takes years to develop, and you still have to be familiar with the topic! For example, I feel comfortable reading statistics papers, but I would be totally lost reading number theory. As others have commented, familiarity with the foundational ideas is just as important as the notation. So how do you get mathematical maturity? A bachelor’s in math, or equivalent. Meaning, approximately 4 years of focused, ideally guided, practice. I don’t think there are any faster ways. Edit: Also important to know: most papers are poorly written, so that definitely doesn’t help. It’s especially important early on to identify who the leaders are in a field, and focus on their writings. In statistical Machine Learning, I recommend anything by Trevor Hastie, Rob Tibshirani, Bradley Efron, and Martin Wainwright.