Keep going.
Don’t be afraid to “go deep,” learning begets learning.
Read more. This might sound obvious: the more you read, the more you _can_ read. You might find it helpful to stop memorizing info in order to just ceremonially regurgitate it (eg. onto some quiz/exam).
Read with a pencil/pen and take notes in the margins. The goal is to keep moving; you will eventually find something you think is really worth digging into.
You’ve highlighted your own points of failure, now you can get to work on correcting these perceived failures. A big part of solving complex problems is learning how to break them down into small chunks and then simplifying those chunks if need be.
There are plenty of books that try to teach problem solving skills (eg. how to solve it, George Polya). You can also find a clip of Feynman talking about how solving a lot of problems made him a great problem solver.
Forgetting about the whole “cult-of-interviewing flavor of loving to solve problems,” solving problems becomes more fun the better you get at it. It’s like anything else, you have to practice. Other students thought I was a “math genius,” but these same students rarely studied or completed their assignments. I did (and I don’t advocate this) every problem in the book, then got a second book and started working through it.
Consistency is key and its effects compound. You’re going to have a much longer career than you think. Now is the best time to exercise disciplined consistency. It seems like you’ve realized there’s no magical path—-that’s great. There isn’t any path except the one we carve out for ourselves, step by step, one foot in front of the other. So, keep going.
Confusion is the sweat of learning.
