I love generative art, so I quite often run into things like Lorenz attractors. I looked up how they are made and that lead me to differential equations which lead me to better understand calculus. So my love of pretty graphics lead me to learning math with a purpose.
I dunno, it's worked for me. I have a problem I want to solve, then learn the tools I need to solve it. Not just math, but just as a software developer.
