[telegraph]

As a student of applied mathematics I pretty much agree with the gist of this post, although I'm not entirely sure what it means to "understand the math" of a field if you don't understand the concepts (or, to be unaware of the math if you do understand the concepts).

I think the real key, rather than seeing equations and having them explained to you, is to learn how to read an equation so it teaches or illuminates a concept instead of mystifies. There are lots of simple tricks to this that can be immensely helpful, and most of us already know them: recognizing that a formula is monotonic on its domain, for example, tells you about the relationship of the variables involved, and therefore the mechanics of whatever real world quantities are being described.