Sure you can learn a lot from just the literature but in my experience there is a set of heuristics and common understandings/techniques that are often passed on through instructors or peers you're collaborating with that are absent in textbooks. More importantly, points of emphasis and exigent problems in an era of information deluge often come through only when in regular contact with practitioners and attendance of conferences.
These are thoughts that have crystallized for me over a 4 year period of starting math late in undergrad, struggling through and putting a lot of time into non essential aspects in the process of self study to get up to speed, hitting a road block when attempting to self study graduate level material but ultimately managing upon working in an academic setting.
Sure you can learn a lot from just the literature but in my experience there is a set of heuristics and common understandings/techniques that are often passed on through instructors or peers you're collaborating with that are absent in textbooks. More importantly, points of emphasis and exigent problems in an era of information deluge often come through only when in regular contact with practitioners and attendance of conferences.
These are thoughts that have crystallized for me over a 4 year period of starting math late in undergrad, struggling through and putting a lot of time into non essential aspects in the process of self study to get up to speed, hitting a road block when attempting to self study graduate level material but ultimately managing upon working in an academic setting.