Re: category-theory-first approaches; I find that most people think this is a bad idea because most people need to see concrete examples before category theory clicks for them, otherwise it’s too general, but a few people feel differently and have published introductory textbooks on category theory that assume less background knowledge than the standard textbooks. If you’re interested, you could try Awodey’s Category Theory (free), or Lawvere’s Conceptual Mathematics. After getting some more basics under your belt, you could give either of those a shot, just in case you’re the sort of person who learns faster by seeing the general rule before the concrete examples. (These people exist, but I think it’s easy to fall into the trap of wishing that you were that sort of person and banging your head against the general rule when you really just need to pick up the concrete examples first. One should update if first-principles approaches are not working.)
Re: category-theory-first approaches; I find that most people think this is a bad idea because most people need to see concrete examples before category theory clicks for them, otherwise it’s too general, but a few people feel differently and have published introductory textbooks on category theory that assume less background knowledge than the standard textbooks. If you’re interested, you could try Awodey’s Category Theory (free), or Lawvere’s Conceptual Mathematics. After getting some more basics under your belt, you could give either of those a shot, just in case you’re the sort of person who learns faster by seeing the general rule before the concrete examples. (These people exist, but I think it’s easy to fall into the trap of wishing that you were that sort of person and banging your head against the general rule when you really just need to pick up the concrete examples first. One should update if first-principles approaches are not working.)