[8lahaj]

I started learning some introductory maths on my own recently--via a relatively rigourous proof oriented text, a format of which I had no background with--and on one of the first few pages the author says something along the lines of 'if you're learning this for the first time, you should be spending at least an hour per page'. I was shocked at first, a bit incredulous, an hour? per page? ridiculous -- until I started reached the actual text.

I thought I was bright as a child, not studying, but as I got older I realized this was not the case (albeit still holding out some hope). At first, in this endeavor, I was discouraged spending so long, but then, oddly enough, I found myself proud of the fact I spent so much time trying to understand the content. Reading and re-reading until I understood what was going on -- and then the next day, I would forget some of it, so I would read it again (this time spending less time (woohoo!)), until I could now not only recite the content but understand it.