Ok you two have inspired me. I've been wanting to learn math (and relearn college math from decades ago) and I always get bogged down and quit. I'm gonna try it your way.

I am very glad to hear that! Enjoy :)

I recommend the Art of Problem Solving community as a great place to start. I have no affiliation with them, they're just awesome for math learners of all levels.

The problem with using the right techniques is that there are essentially three kinds of techniques:

a) fast at the beginning, then gradually slow down, e.g. rote memorization;

b) slow at the beginning, then gradually speed up, e.g. deep understanding;

c) slow at the beginning, then remain slow forever, e.g. doing something chaotic and stupid.

The problem is that sometimes you have incompetent people who use the third kind of method. Then, when things blow up, people start paying close attention to the speed, and reject any method that is slow at the beginning, because they suspect it would be the same story.

(In other words: premature optimization, technical debt.)