I learned abstract linear algebra first, and didn't learn geometrical interpretations until I taught myself many years later so I could write an asteroids clone in svg.
I don't think it was a pedagogically a problem, except I couldn't bring myself to care about matrices when I was learning them... It was very easy to take my abstract knowledge and apply it, and for me it might have been harder the other way around.
In retrospect a hybrid applied/theoretical topic (like reed Solomon encoding and recovery) might have perked me up. But I might have also been a strange case.
I don't think it was a pedagogically a problem, except I couldn't bring myself to care about matrices when I was learning them... It was very easy to take my abstract knowledge and apply it, and for me it might have been harder the other way around.
In retrospect a hybrid applied/theoretical topic (like reed Solomon encoding and recovery) might have perked me up. But I might have also been a strange case.