This post was written while at MATS 9.0 under the mentorship of Richard Ngo. It's only meta-related to my research.

I would like to start by quoting a point Jan Kulveit made about economics culture in a recent post.

non-mathematical, often intuitive reasoning of [an] economist leads to some interesting insight, and then the formalisation, assumptions and models are selected in a way where the math leads to the same conclusions.

Jan notes that the math is "less relevant than it seems" in the process. I resonate with this. The mathematical results are predetermined by the assumptions in the model, which in turn follow the insight born from intuitive reasoning. This begs the question: if the important part of the insight is the intuition, and the math is its deterministic (if laborious) consequence, then what exactly is the point of the math? What insight does it bring? These questions of course apply not only to economics, but to any mathematisation of worldly[1] phenomena.

In this post, I describe some roles math plays in delivering and communicating insight to researchers and the social structures they are embedded in. I'm interested in characterising the legitimate uses of mathematical formalism, but also [...]

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Outline:

(01:32) Calibrating intuitions

(02:36) Communicating your work

(04:01) The lossiness of memetically fit mathematics

(06:41) Proof of work

The original text contained 4 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
February 5th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/2TQyomzcnkPN5ZYF5/what-s-the-point-of-the-math

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“What’s the Point of the Math?” by Ashe Vazquez Nuñez

LessWrong (30+ Karma)