Perhaps I'm being a bit harsh. On the other hand, I feel its more similar to asking someone who says "I love reading fiction" what is a book they liked and them not having an answer.
Yeah but it is the situation.
I remember a roommate saying "I love math!". When I talked with her a bit I understood she likes doing solutions of easy integrals\derivatives because they are simple, relaxing, and rewarding for her - her math classes were easy and she could get accolades by just doing those simple excersizes.
Ofcourse the distance between that and a proper field of math is vast. But that was math for her.
There are comments on HN I find correlate to blithe superciliousness. A light expression of common sentiment (math is beautiful!) without domain knowledge is somehow a marker of social superiority... yeesh. kandel's sibling comment being the kind of reasonable rejoinder that shouldn't have to exist if there was a good faith follow-up to this sort of conversation, instead of turning up the nose...
You know what, I think you're right. I should be less judgemental. I'm not sure why I thought that was okay. I think some of it comes from the disappointment when someone describes themselves as loving math being part of their personality, but then when I try to engage with that as a jumping-off point or common interest its like there's nothing there.