On your math point:

Patrick offored in september last year to do tutoring

http://lesswrong.com/lw/7vd/free_tutoring_in_mathprogramming/

Maybe we should build a network of people who'd apply enough peer pressure and guidance to replicate the level of pressure present in a classroom to get stuff done and learn math. We shouldn't overload Patrick but would it be helpful to have LW affiliated University of Reddit, or Udemy or even just Skype class.