I played with similar approach in JavaScript and built a NanoNeuron https://github.com/trekhleb/nano-neuron (it is more verbose than Python though)
f(x) = 0.
If you don't know ML I don't think you're going to learn much through ad hoc demos.
I used to have a wife, but they took her in the divorce!
The human mind isn't very good at correlating its contents[0]. You can "know" something for years without realizing its implications.
The human mind traverses its knowledge like a man with a small flashlight in total darkness. Our beam of attention is small and narrow, so you need to put the right things in it, or the magic doesn't happen.
This has important implications for learning. I don't know what they are though.
Probably something like, "you can know something without knowing what it means." You haven't connected it to the things it's supposed to be connected to yet. I don't know how to fix that though. (Something involving the Feynman technique, maybe?)
[0] H.P. Lovecraft quote - https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/193944-the-most-merciful-th...
EDIT: His son is co-author?