I was obsessed with electronics from about age 3 or so... I was introduced to Ohm's law around age 10 or so but having no Algebra knowledge it made practically no sense. The way current flowed (or didn't flow) was quite mysterious.
It wasn't until I learned current and voltage laws that the way current flowed actually made sense.
Analogies were super helpful too. A capacitor is like a rubber membrane that pressure can build up on. Voltage is pressure. Current is rate of flow. An inductor is a wheel in the pipe with inertia. A transformer is two mechanically linked inductors. A Mosfet is a pressure-activated switch. A BJT is a current-activated switch. A diode is a check valve.
It wasn't until I took Physics in high school/college though, that it all finally "clicked". All of electronics could be described quite well by those finicky electrons that repel each other. How a capacitor actually works. How a charged pointy surface draws the electrons to the point, sometimes enough to escape. How magnetic fields are actually produced.
Digital electronics was actually much easier especially coming from a background in computing. It's all logic, you don't really need algebra or calculus.
Anyways I would like to offer this as a counterpoint and say that learning the fundamentals and physics made the world of electronics way more satisfying than to always be tinkering but not really understanding.
I do think though that these topics are really quite difficult to understand and internalize. Even most practicing EE's I think struggle with really able to internally translate the physics, and Maxwell's laws into the day to day work. It is just quite abstract. I know I still struggle with it.
The truth is most EE work is not so different from software where you can get by most of the time by reading datasheets, basic laws, following working circuit examples, and relying on what's worked in the past. You don't have to derive everything from first principles all the time. There is just a wealth of well understood designs out there to pick from. Additionally a lot of the work is plumbing and being careful, such as basic PCB design.
It wasn't until I learned current and voltage laws that the way current flowed actually made sense.
Analogies were super helpful too. A capacitor is like a rubber membrane that pressure can build up on. Voltage is pressure. Current is rate of flow. An inductor is a wheel in the pipe with inertia. A transformer is two mechanically linked inductors. A Mosfet is a pressure-activated switch. A BJT is a current-activated switch. A diode is a check valve.
It wasn't until I took Physics in high school/college though, that it all finally "clicked". All of electronics could be described quite well by those finicky electrons that repel each other. How a capacitor actually works. How a charged pointy surface draws the electrons to the point, sometimes enough to escape. How magnetic fields are actually produced.
Digital electronics was actually much easier especially coming from a background in computing. It's all logic, you don't really need algebra or calculus.
Anyways I would like to offer this as a counterpoint and say that learning the fundamentals and physics made the world of electronics way more satisfying than to always be tinkering but not really understanding.
I do think though that these topics are really quite difficult to understand and internalize. Even most practicing EE's I think struggle with really able to internally translate the physics, and Maxwell's laws into the day to day work. It is just quite abstract. I know I still struggle with it.
The truth is most EE work is not so different from software where you can get by most of the time by reading datasheets, basic laws, following working circuit examples, and relying on what's worked in the past. You don't have to derive everything from first principles all the time. There is just a wealth of well understood designs out there to pick from. Additionally a lot of the work is plumbing and being careful, such as basic PCB design.