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Is this what math-inclined people spend their free time doing? Goodness...

May I ask what did you think mathematicians are doing, and what do you think they are supposed to be doing?

You're right. It's terrible for mathematicians to be spending time solving silly things that interest them.

Pardon me while I return to writing a Game of Life simulator

What I actually meant is that almost all mathematical problems are on some level silly, and most of mathematicians solve them precisely because they find them interesting. In this case the silliness is clearly visible to a layman, but in more abstract parts of math one needs to spend quite a lot of time to understands the underlying concepts.

think are doing: reddit, hn, etc.

supposed to be doing: what the post indicates. Grading papers. (dis)proving p != np. (dis)proving one of the other millennium problems.

EDIT: formatting.

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