> I've simply accepted the fact that I might need to spend almost two weeks on a single proof or even definition, continually returning to it or ingesting it in

> I've simply accepted the fact that I might need to spend almost two weeks on a single proof or even definition, continually returning to it or ingesting it in different ways until I am ready to move on. This is exactly the correct attitude. There is no royal road to mathematics, it requires a lot of careful thinking to put everything together in your head. When I was studying mathematics seriously, getting through 4 pages of a textbook in an hour was a really good pace, but usually I only managed half or quarter that. > I think part of the problem is that mathematics is so precise that subsequent understanding is tightly coupled to a comprehension of prerequisites. 100% agreed with this and the rest of your comment. I often see people pick up a research paper, try to read it with very little understanding of the prerequisite concepts it is built upon, try to look these up, which only uncovers prerequisites of the prerequisites they need to understand first, then despair, give up, and blame arcane notation, probably because the alternative is just too humbling to contemplate.