[philhartmanonic]

My thing is the symbols. Stopped studying math in college, and every time I've tried to get back into it, seems like my options are either starting over from 4th grade or make sense of a formula that appears to be written in some form of ancient hieroglyphics. I think I can grasp the concepts if I could understand the syntax, but the best source I've found is the Wikipedia page on math symbols, which is little more than a list (and quite a few have a good half a dozen meanings).

It'd be cool if there was a good book focused on just understanding the symbols in as plain english as the concepts allow, and teaching you what context you need to look for when the symbols have multiple potential meanings. Maybe there is a book like that (and if so, please let me know, as that would be super exciting).

[nubbins]

I think I know what you mean about symbols but thats because I used to try to read math at normal speed. Actually theres a only small set of common symbols you could pick up in an afternoon and everything else is domain specific and therefore defined in place or needs to be looked up. The real issue is getting the math ideas in your head takes much longer than simply reading an equation, like you might see “e” or log and feel frustrated you don’t remember the symbol, but really the issue that everyone has to deal with is figuring out why that term is there which can take much more brainpower. Im not an expert but learned a lot through Coureras Introduction to Mathematical Thinking.

[goerz]

I find that with anything where I feel I have to "start over" every time I try to get back into it, the solution is to consciously memorize the key points and the notation of anything I'm learning, using (Anki) flashcards. Michael Nielsen recently wrote a great overview of the process recently: http://augmentingcognition.com/ltm.html

Making sure the basics stick in long-term memory, you can then build on that anytime in the future without having to review everything.

[nerdponx]

What's an example of a subject you struggled to learn? In a good introductory calculus book you shouldn't see anything more outlandish than an integral.

[kbwt]

Not OP but you could write a whole book on "what exactly does dx (and its variants) mean and why can you sometimes manipulate it algebraically?"