Getting a large conversation going about math: sure that’s a laudable goal for math educators trying to excite the majority of students who don’t go on to become mathematicians. However the real nerds don’t want to get bogged down talking to people, especially those who are not at their level. Instead they want to go off alone or read more of the hard theory from the source. This has been their preference from back in grade school.

It’s just not true that socially connected, practically focused math with realistic problems is the one and only way. It is a way that may work for many. For many of the real math aficionados, the appeal of the subject is its abstraction and the potential a solitary mind can solve a problem no one else has solved before.