> except to memorize them and gradually extend understanding backwards That is not the only reason, but also a big part of it, yes. Some of the things (but not

> except to memorize them and gradually extend understanding backwards That is not the only reason, but also a big part of it, yes. Some of the things (but not all) that I memorize I admittedly don't fully understand. I try to avoid that, but it happens. Usually though, the sudden realization comes at a later point, when I understood more of something else. Literally happened last week to me. I had been memorizing a "stupid" theorem for a while[1], not realizing why it's useful, until something I read was about discontinuities in the n-th derivation of a function, and what that means for the terms of the function's Taylor series, and it all lit up in me, tying it all together. It's a good feeling! [1] https://www.dsprelated.com/freebooks/sasp/Spectral_Roll_Off.html https://www.dsprelated.com/freebooks/sasp/Spectral_Roll_Off....