12/01/2024
Mathematicians have to be radically honest about what they don’t understand and what they think. That might help them see, for example, that an object is defined the wrong way. Or that a different definition will make a theory simpler. Or that this is not the important notion, that one is.
There’s something about honesty, about being radically candid, about trying to find ways to articulate what you really feel — it’s super hard. It takes practice.
When you do math, you’re exposed to the human thought process in a way that is really pure. It’s not just about understanding things, but about understanding things in a very childish, deep, naïve, super clear, obvious way. It’s very good training for creativity. It’s a scaffold for your imagination.
The mathematician David Bessis claims that everyone is capable of, and can benefit greatly from, mathematical thinking.
