I sometimes spend inordinate amounts of time memorizing math articles or theorems/proofs or formulas. My question is "am I wasting time?" and will 'active thinking' or 'working out problems' be faster way to master mathematics?
I am absolutely a beginner. So at an apprentice stage sometimes I find that best way to grasp a subject is through verbatim scribing. Also, memorization seem to be my forte.
Mathematics is a language and just like when trying to learn the basics one has to memorize grammar, does the same theory apply in this field?
I used to browse MO, this website, wikipedia but since "mathematics is not a spectator sport" I imagine more fruitful way would to be to isolate small problems and work on it?
I am sorry if the question is very general.