I am trying to independently learn mathematics at an upper-level undergraduate and first year grad student level. It's mostly linear algebra and statistics. The textbooks that I'm reading are quickly becoming more proof-based than I've previously experienced.
Occasionally, I feel that I need someone to just bounce an idea off or to ask for some clarification. I submit questions to stackexchange sometimes, but the format of the site understandably discourages the vague and ill-formed questions that I often have.
A separate motivation is to have someone who holds me accountable for making some progress and additionally can direct my studying.
Do you have suggestions for how to find someone who could help me? Should I offer to pay a math grad student at the local university? Should I try to find a willing professor? Other suggestions?
You should definitely not study all by your own. But it is never a good idea to pay someone for tutoring. A few personal suggestions:
1.Attend or audit classes and seek help from the TAs and professors.
2.Watch online lectures if you do not have access to MATH courses locally. But Im afraid there aren't many advanced math video lectures out there.
3.When there are no help around, find a classical textbook and stick to it. Read multiple times, work out all the exercises, and look for solution set online to verify your answers. (its a pity such old school learning method seemed a little bit overlooked these days)
4.If you have a particular difficult question, MSE is exactly the place you can seek answer from.
Personally, I benefit a lot from asking questions to the mathematicians I know, and from auditing their courses. But this is really a luxury that most self learners don't have. Sad but what can you do.