| OP is unintentionally superficial, but he's grasping at a greater understanding and he knows. I think this is what he is looking for: Why is this idea true? Do I really believe it? Could I convince someone else that it is true? Why didn't the author use a different argument? Do I have a better argument or method of explaining the idea? Why didn't the author explain it the way that I understand it? Is my way wrong? Do I really get the idea? Am I missing some subtlety? Did this author miss a subtlety? If I can't understand the point, perhaps I can understand a similar but simpler idea? Which simpler idea? Is it really necessary to understand this idea? Can I accept this point without understanding the details of why it is true? Will my understanding of the whole story suffer from not understanding why the point is true? -- How To Read Mathematics, authors Shai Simonson and Fernando Gouvea [1] [1]http://web.stonehill.edu/compsci/History_Math/math-read.htm# |