[pbazarnik]

When I first discovered OPAMPs I my teen years while self learning the electronics I was astonished by the beauty and power of an abstract opamp: the mythical component with infinite differential voltage gain, zero common mode gain, infinite input impedance and zero output resistance. This marvelous device can only exist, without destroying the world by its infinite output power, by staying in equilibrium defined by negative feedback. /s

You have to appreciate the reason it was invented in Bell Labs: analog computers, which primary applications at that time were in military applications for computing artillery solutions.

Now, as a professional EE, I still think fondly of them, even though I know well about their real life limitations. My advice is to try to stay first at ideal OPAMP abstraction level to appreciate the mathematical usefulness of that abstract construct. This is almost entirely how professionals use them.

I can only lament the educational system, which invariably makes the students miss the forrest for the trees by not presenting well the power of ideal opamp