Thurston’s response offers a radical change of perspective: The product of mathematics is clarity and understanding. Not theorems, by themselves. The world does not suffer from an oversupply of clarity and understanding (to put it mildly). The real satisfaction from mathematics is in learning from others and sharing with others. All of us have clea

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It is beautifully expressed in these striking lines written by Thurston in 2011: “Mathematics is commonly thought to be the pursuit of universal truths, of patterns that are not anchored to any single fixed context. But on a deeper level the goal of mathematics is to develop enhanced ways for humans to see and think about the world. Mathematics is

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