I have a very poor understanding of mathematical operators and how they relate in formulae. How I have phrased that might even suggest how poor it is. I have learned 'what to expect' from operators, like exponents/log will graph curve-ily etc, but I have never felt a solid sense of understanding that meant I could see any formula containing beyond +-*/ and feel confident that my solution would be close to right.

I recently tried to implement a basic compound interest calculation to graph something and understanding the formula did not come easily. By that, I mean that exactly what the terms represent and what each operation is achieving was something I really had to focus on. Being a dev, most of my counterparts have always seemed very comfortable with this stuff and I'm usually 30s behind.

I'm really astounded when I see complex formulae - I just can't imagine ever understanding them, let alone coming up with them in the first place. It's easiest for me to just imagine that I didn't develop a brain that's good at this stuff. It seems ironic to me because one of the enjoyable parts of writing code for me is modelling scenarios, assigning responsibility, laying out entities, etc which seem (to me) like activities that exist in the same 'abstract thinking' kind of space that math is in. Maybe that's another thing I don't understand :)