"As someone who was taught the 'traditional' way of mathematics, can someone give a few pointers of de-programming myself from the traditional way that I was taught."
I tutor high school students in math and breaking the memorization, process based approach to math is usually pretty difficult. The biggest thing is to absolutely avoid memorizing or even looking at formulas. Instead, try and look at things graphically. A lot of formulas seem confusing and unintuitive but if you look at it on a graph, it makes a lot more sense.
A basic example is something like the distance formulas. Students often say "Gah I can never remember the distance formula. I need to memorize it before the test" because
d = sqrt( (x1 - x2)^2 + (y1 - y2)^2 ) seems complex and confusing.
But if you draw a right triangle, it's apparent that the distance formula is just finding the hypotenuse.
In a nutshell, focus on the why's and not the how's.
I tutor high school students in math and breaking the memorization, process based approach to math is usually pretty difficult. The biggest thing is to absolutely avoid memorizing or even looking at formulas. Instead, try and look at things graphically. A lot of formulas seem confusing and unintuitive but if you look at it on a graph, it makes a lot more sense.
A basic example is something like the distance formulas. Students often say "Gah I can never remember the distance formula. I need to memorize it before the test" because
d = sqrt( (x1 - x2)^2 + (y1 - y2)^2 ) seems complex and confusing.
But if you draw a right triangle, it's apparent that the distance formula is just finding the hypotenuse.
In a nutshell, focus on the why's and not the how's.