[elandybarr]

> Mathematics is best learned under the guidance of a mentor.

I disagree. The most important thing is curiosity.

For math, you need to think, question, and play with the concepts. It is much more active than just reading. Develop an intuition by seeing what happens when you maximize or minimize a parameter. Think about the consequences if something were different. Try to derive relations for fun.

This also applies to music and code.

If you figure out how things work on your own, you will retain it far better than going through the motions mechanically.

[allarm]

> The most important thing is curiosity.

I mean yeah, but a good teacher can point out your mistakes that are not obvious to you at the entry level. When it comes to i.e. music, such mistakes can make a bad habit that impacts the following development (wrong hand position, wrong fingering, etc). I don't know if that extends to math though.

[rootlocus]

> For math, you need to think, question, and play with the concepts.

And having someone to answer questions and validate hypotheses makes the learning process a lot smoother and helps correct mistakes before they solidify.