Why do applied explanations sometimes seem more confusing than theoretical ones?

[Simfish]

Is it common to find the "applied" explanations more confusing than the "theoretical"

Is it common to find the "applied" explanations more confusing than the "theoretical" ones?

E.g. thermodynamics seems VERY confusing if I try to learn it from engineering textbooks, but VERY understandable if I try to learn it from Schroeder's book.

What personal examples do you guys have of this phenomena, if any?

 

[Pengwuino]

My first encounter with the Stern-Gerlach experiment confused the hell out of me. I basically assumed that magic occurred and that I best "shut up and calculate" as Feynman would say.