For each section, start from the exercises, then work backwards towards the material necessary to understand and solve the exercises.
If there are no exercises, make some up (do the proofs yourself, try to come up with unsolved scenarios and solve them, etc)
For me it helped immensely when I had a fun side project that demanded new knowledge. For example, my chat bot side project was a fun way to learn natural language processing:
* its an "unsolved" problem (for various definitions of "solved"). I didn't expect to "solve" it, but every time I'd try something new there was the excitement that maybe, just maybe, this might be "it" (i.e. an immense improvement)
* the responses it produces can be really funny. If its online, others can have fun with it too.
* you can try lots of strategies and see the immediate effect. Not only do you learn about the math and technique by implementing it, but you get an immediate "feel" about the kind of effects it has.
Trying to over-generalize, it helps to have some "element" that you consider valuable, fun or rewarding to drive the whole process.
If there are no exercises, make some up (do the proofs yourself, try to come up with unsolved scenarios and solve them, etc)
For me it helped immensely when I had a fun side project that demanded new knowledge. For example, my chat bot side project was a fun way to learn natural language processing:
* its an "unsolved" problem (for various definitions of "solved"). I didn't expect to "solve" it, but every time I'd try something new there was the excitement that maybe, just maybe, this might be "it" (i.e. an immense improvement)
* the responses it produces can be really funny. If its online, others can have fun with it too.
* you can try lots of strategies and see the immediate effect. Not only do you learn about the math and technique by implementing it, but you get an immediate "feel" about the kind of effects it has.
Trying to over-generalize, it helps to have some "element" that you consider valuable, fun or rewarding to drive the whole process.