[omnicognate]

I'm going to have to take another run at learning this corner of computing soon, but it's a prospect I'm not relishing. Everything about it rubs me up the wrong way.

If you'd like an antidote, have a read of Gerald Jay Sussman's books, where you'll see profound concepts from maths and physics captured in succinct and expressive (as opposed to merely terse) code, accompanied by eloquent explanations devoid of boasts or name dropping and provided free of charge online. That will change the way you think about computing too, but it will be a more pleasant experience.

[philipov]

Which one do you recommend?

The first one I found was "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs"

https://web.mit.edu/6.001/6.037/sicp.pdf

[omnicognate]

That's a good place to start but it's primarily about programming itself. In "Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics" and "Functional Differential Geometry" he applies his approach of using computer programs as a way of communicating concepts to humans to some fascinating maths and physics topics.

[chuckadams]

The SICP lecture series goes places that the book doesn’t: one of them involved encoding derivatives in a generic way that high-school math never covered. It was mind-blowingly elegant, which is of course why I completely forgot it.