University courses and their tendency to jump around between literature chapters

[Randy]

Nearly everyone in the sciences learns how to solve differential equations before they learn the fundamental theorem of calculus. Nearly everyone in computer science learns to write a high level programming language before they learn about Turing Machines.

I guess it's down to this wonderful phenomena that's pretty much exclusive to STEM fields where higher levels of complexity can often be simpler to understand. Whereas if you're writing a book on the subject, you really should start at first principles.

And in the humanities it's fine too because you don't even have a logical progression. The best you have is a chronological progression.