[outlace]

I was obsessed with topological data analysis which is basically applied algebraic topology, so I read every paper I could find on TDA. All of them were mostly incomprehensible to me at first, but by working backward, e.g. "What's a homology group?" Oh I need to learn some basic group theory first. Oh what's a Cayley graph? I kept working backward and forward until I could piece it all together. Working backward from a specific goal was very motivating compared to just working through a textbook aimlessly.