When I read the first meaty chapter about graphs and commutativity I initially thought he just spends too long explaining simple concepts.
But then ai realized I would always forget the names for all the mathy c' words - commutativity commutativity, qssociativity... and for the first time I could actually remember commutativity and what it means, just because he tied it into a graphical representation (which actually made me laugh out loud because, initially, I thought it was a joke). So the concept of "x + y = y + x" always made sense to me but never really stuck like the graphical representation, which also made me remember its name for the first time.
It's because the graphs are visual metaphors that encode privileged information[0]. Which is an often overlooked aspect of teaching imo. Your own initial dismissive reaction kind of shows why: people don't really get the point until they realize it works, and even then they're not sure why.
But then ai realized I would always forget the names for all the mathy c' words - commutativity commutativity, qssociativity... and for the first time I could actually remember commutativity and what it means, just because he tied it into a graphical representation (which actually made me laugh out loud because, initially, I thought it was a joke). So the concept of "x + y = y + x" always made sense to me but never really stuck like the graphical representation, which also made me remember its name for the first time.
I am sold.