I love theory with theorems, definitions & proofs, but i don't like exercise, I need more context around it. Is there a different way of practicing theory except given exercises, maybe some applied math projects? For example perfect example is nand2tetris project, is there something like that for math?
Any help would be appreciated.
I've found that if the exercises in the book you are working on seem too difficult and lack context, the likely problem is that the book is above your level. The solution to this seems to be to drop down a notch. For example at the moment I need to learn measure theory, so I tried reading "Real and Complex Analysis" by Rudin (I found a basically brand-new copy of it in a second-hand bookshop for a very low price) and found it seems like gibberish. A few days ago I started on a much lower level book, R.G. Bartle "Integration and Lebesgue Measure" and the exercises seem quite pleasant. I'm sure this reflects my level rather than the quality of either book.