> Attempting to learn mathematics as some sort of pattern matching,
The math I did before university was doable with basically pattern matching ; I then still had a close to photographic memory (I could skim materials and recall them exactly) and got A’s in math because of mostly that. I could do exams by filling in methods I memorised. There was no understanding. Then in uni I got a good scare as none of that worked anymore; now I had to actually know what I was doing. That was obviously much better but I was not prepared for that at all.
The math I did before university was doable with basically pattern matching ; I then still had a close to photographic memory (I could skim materials and recall them exactly) and got A’s in math because of mostly that. I could do exams by filling in methods I memorised. There was no understanding. Then in uni I got a good scare as none of that worked anymore; now I had to actually know what I was doing. That was obviously much better but I was not prepared for that at all.