Meh? I think a more mercenary approach to learning prerequisites is fine, and frankly better. Use Mathematica or Alpha to show you how equations get from one

Meh? I think a more mercenary approach to learning prerequisites is fine, and frankly better. Use Mathematica or Alpha to show you how equations get from one place to another - those tools are great at the fundamentals. You can skim a calc book, use Mathematica/Alpha to fill in your gaps, and play with toy problems to convince yourself well enough to continue. The basics are the ones with the most different approaches developed to teach/use them, so they can most easily be skimmed by with cheap modern trickery.