> In particular, while I can visualize code executing in my head, I cannot just look at a formula and do the same: the formula is too static. The right lesson

> In particular, while I can visualize code executing in my head, I cannot just look at a formula and do the same: the formula is too static. The right lesson to learn from this isn't that math is too hard, it's that you're using the wrong tools. The usual target architecture of math (so to speak) is a rewrite engine, not a register machine. You should almost never be "executing" anything.