Thank you for sharing, that was one of the most insightful long form pieces I've read in a long time! And the writing was enjoyable to read even as a math layperson.

I was going to say you should submit it but I saw you did a few days ago but it only got a few votes... If Dang sees this IMO it would be extremely deserving of the second chance pool as I wouldn't be surprised to see easily jump to the front page with a different roll of the dice.

wow, that was indeed a brilliant essay. i particularly liked the framing that "solving a big conjecture was a cryptographic proof that you had come up with a genuine conceptual innovation".

> The measure of our success is whether what we do enables people to understand and think more clearly and effectively about mathematics.

I just wanted to highlight this very correct human-centric thought about the purpose of intellection.

Thanks for sharing this. It's unfortunate that the more honest framing about the value of mathematics that he suggests is going to be really, really hard because of all the pitfalls and agendas he mentioned here. I can only hope when the dust settles something will be left.