The experiment at around 2:21 is mind-blowing. We used to see these tricks played by some professionals on TV or during some events, but this is the first time I have seen one from a mathematical background.
https://www.youtube.com/@numberphile/search?query=tadashi
although honmestly most of their mathematicians are lovely people!
I do wonder what a difference it would have made had I had teachers and lecturers half as interesting, humerous, and engaging as this.
This is like listening to Mozart play some playful piece and saying "if only learning piano would have been this much fun" -- there is no shortcut to putting in the time and work to learning the foundations.
That said, I don't think what I said (or at least what I meant) was unfair; IF maths could have been presented more like this I might have been more interested (and thus learned better/more).
Perhaps I just had more of the "dry" maths teachers, and my high school maths teacher was just a bully, so anything he had to say/teach was pretty much starting on a bad foot.