The big thing that made it all click for mathematics was that I stopped thinking about mathematics the way that it was taught to me and I started thinking about it the way that it naturally felt correct to me

So in my specific case I stopped thinking about mathematics as: how to interpret a sequence of symbols

But instead I decided to start thinking about it as “the symbols tell me about the multidimensional topological coordinate space that I need to inhabit

So now when I look at a equation (or whatever) my first step is “OK how do I turn this into a topology so that I can explore the toplogical space the way that a number would”

Kind of like if you were to extend Nagle’s “what it’s like to be a bat” but instead of being a bat you’re a number