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▲ kian 5 hours ago

Learning mathematics is about understanding the world, not proving things.

▲anitil 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That may be true, but mathematicians still need to eat, and for the they'll need jobs. 'Will there be more or less demand for mathematicians in the future?' and 'What will the work entail?' I think are valid concerns

▲Barrin92 5 hours ago | parent [-]

the vast majority of people who pursued a maths degree, including myself here, didn't expect to compete with Terrence Tao or solve outstanding research problems.

We studied maths because it is interesting, because it teaches you how to think, you often pair it up with something that's more employable like economics or software development, or you go for a teaching career. Unless you're one of the few people who are heavily invested in cutting edge research I don't even see how new research tools change the profession.

An undergraduate maths education isn't going to change because you have people with computers churn out 400 page proofs. It's like being worried about 30 move Stockfish opening theory if you're a club level chess player.

▲anitil 5 hours ago | parent [-]

That's very fair. I enjoyed undergrad maths because it kind of blew my mind but I never considered pursuing graduate studies

▲usrnm 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

You must be thinking of physics and other sciences. Mathematics has very little to do with the real world and can be better described as a game, similar to chess, but much more complex. It's no wonder it now went the way of chess, go and similar games

▲novaRom 21 minutes ago | parent [-]

> Mathematics has very little to do with the real world

But it's a construction based on very basic properties of the real world, at least on those properties we accept and perceive as very general and we use them as building blocks.