WEBVTT

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Hi, do you picture mathematics as a solitary

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activity where one person is sitting alone with

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a pencil, a sheet of paper, and a difficult problem?

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Yeah, there is some truth in that image because

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mathematical thinking sometimes requires long

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stretches of quiet concentration. But learning

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mathematics has shown me that even when I am

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working alone, I am participating in a much larger

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conversation. For example, the symbols I use

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were developed by other people. The questions

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that I explore began long before I encountered

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them. Every theorem rests on definitions, insights,

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and arguments that were built across generations.

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And when I learn math, I enter a structure. that

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countless people have helped to create. And I

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find something humbling and hopeful in all this.

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No one invented mathematics in isolation. People

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from different cultures and periods observed

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patterns. They've created ways of representing

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them. They've posed questions. They've made mistakes.

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and have even extended one another's ideas. Some

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names have been preserved and celebrated, but

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many others have been forgotten. And yet, their

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thinking remains present in the mathematics we

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inherit. The work continues throughout the math

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community today. We understand more when we explain

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our reasoning. or listen to another approach,

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or let someone question an assumption that we

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did not realize that we were making. A solution

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may begin in one mind, but it becomes more reliable

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when others can examine it and challenge it and

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build upon it. A proof is not merely an answer.

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It is an explanation offered to other people.

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And this has changed the way I think about asking

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for help. If mathematics were only a measure

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of my ability, needing another person might feel

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like failure. But if mathematics is a shared

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pursuit of understanding, well then, asking,

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explaining, listening, and revising are all part

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of the work. Mathematician and author Francis

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Hsu, definitely one of my favorite. writes about

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mathematics as a practice that can satisfy deep

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human desires and cultivate virtues that are

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necessary for flourishing. And one of those desires

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is belonging. We want to know that there is a

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place for us and that our contributions matter.

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Mathematics can become that kind of place when

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it is practiced congressively, not as a contest

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to determine who is smartest. but as an invitation

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to understand something together. Now, I may

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solve some problems by myself, but I never do

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mathematics entirely by myself. I am learning

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from people I will never meet, choosing ideas

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I did not create, and adding my small questions

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to a conversation larger than any one life. mathematics

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has changed my understanding of what achievement

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is about. The goal is not only to reach the answer,

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it is also to bring others with us and to continue

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a human conversation that began long before we

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arrived.