> You wonder, but when that actually happens? How can you be sure that they will stop at all at some point? The blog post doesn't mention that. So you grab that

> You wonder, but when that actually happens? How can you be sure that they will stop at all at some point? The blog post doesn't mention that. So you grab that paper again... This is exactly what I experience whenever I read academic papers (math and statistics, not computer science though). Great explanation, xyzzyz. Another key part of the writing is commonality which (in my history of courses) is sometimes underrated. If pi means profit, let it always stand for profit in that context. That may/will be confusing when you don't know the shorthand, but when you do then that's what makes the related litterature easy to read. But it all boils down to: know the basics. Rarely is an academic paper written for the purpose of (re)introducing all concepts (that's what textbooks are for), so if you expect to pick up a paper and understand it on its own, then you are likely to be disappointed. The alternative would be even more difficult to read - "okay, we get it! f is a function"