Honestly a pet peeve of mine is how everyone in math tends to pretend that it is easy, at least once they cleared their own personal hurdles. This is, I guess,

Honestly a pet peeve of mine is how everyone in math tends to pretend that it is easy, at least once they cleared their own personal hurdles. This is, I guess, a side product of the fact that the world of math harbours almost exclusively people people that "got it" early. If you hear or read discussions between undergraduate math people, they tend to act as if they discovered calculus, the basics of linear algebra, and analysis from the ground up all by themselves! Same thing with professors constantly scoffing at all the "boring" and "trivial" parts. What changed my life back then was a math professor for a mandatory course I had to take. He always emphasized that this stuff is hard, even for him, even the "boring" undergraduate basics. Hard, but doable, and trainable. After years of "this is easy, why don't you get it?" math education I was stunned by these displays, it's not that everyone just "gets it", aside from certain geniuses, it's that some get a headstart. This left such an impression on me that I switched to math major and got my bachelors degree in math (I was very bad at school math). And that one professor is still a huge motivator whenever I try to overcome something I struggle with.