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bsenftnertoday at 10:47 AM1 replyview on HN

This kills me, it is correct, but misses the forest for the trees. Yes, mathematics is a discipline of understanding, but an insular one. The entire field is about trying to understand, but the discipline does not try to be understood. No, that is "your job, not theirs" and that is why this discipline is struggling, struggling in a culture that can barely communicate without emotional morons destroying any constructive communications.


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twoodfintoday at 11:39 AM

Eh? I thought this was the main thrust of the argument: Mathematics has in fact always prized conceptual advancement and understanding over proof, despite presenting itself internally and externally as rewarding the latter. The author calls what he’s proposing “rebranding a plurimillenial project”.

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