> One can roughly divide mathematical education into three stages:
Similarly with programming.
1. Write programs that you think are cool
2. Learn about data structures and algorithms and complexity and software organization.
3. Write programs that you think are cool. But since you know more, you can write more cool programs.
If things are working as they should, the end stage of mathematics and programming should be fun, not tedious. The tedious stuff is just a step along the way for you to be able to do more fun stuff.
Similarly with programming.
1. Write programs that you think are cool
2. Learn about data structures and algorithms and complexity and software organization.
3. Write programs that you think are cool. But since you know more, you can write more cool programs.
If things are working as they should, the end stage of mathematics and programming should be fun, not tedious. The tedious stuff is just a step along the way for you to be able to do more fun stuff.