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  • Jon Sterlingjonmsterling@mathstodon.xyz
    Oct 1, 2026, 7:10 AM

    @Ericson2314 I personally believe so, but it is not my intention to get into a culture war over it. Keep in mind that the essay is written by a problem solver, and is really a defense of combinatorics (broadly construed) against mathematics that fosters theory.

    I personally don’t subscribe to a hard line between the two, specifically because of my faith in theory: if theory has not yet served combinatorics in the way it has served the rest of mathematics, then surely the reason is that theory is still too young.

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  • John EricsonEricson2314@mastodon.social
    Oct 1, 2026, 7:34 AM

    @jonmsterling

    I do think

    > I would be very happy if the “leaves” become devalued in the coming years, and just get blown away and raked up.

    Is the right view, but also tantamount to entering the culture war. A lot of leaf-chasers are feeling rug-pulled right now. A lot of people have not cultivated the patience and creativity to do theory work when there was plenty of glory/money/whatever available without it.

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  • John EricsonEricson2314@mastodon.social
    Oct 1, 2026, 7:37 AM

    @jonmsterling

    > if theory has not yet served combinatorics in the way it has served the rest of mathematics, then surely the reason is that theory is still too young.

    I also agree. Now that we have robo-Erdős maybe we'll finally be incentivized to figure out that theory.

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  • Jon Sterlingjonmsterling@mathstodon.xyz
    Oct 1, 2026, 7:50 AM

    @Ericson2314 I don’t even rule out the possibility that robo-erdős could contribute to this theory… I don’t think that theory is something only humans can do. One thing about theory is that its entire purpose is to serve and edify the human intellect, but this doesn’t mean it must be produced in some pure act of inspiration as opposed to aggregation, even statistical…

    With that said, I personally am not interested in exploring the possibilities above until certain political/economic changes take force — which I sadly no longer expect to take place in my lifetime. I think for the rest of my life I will keep doing things the way I do them. But we will see.

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  • Jon Sterlingjonmsterling@mathstodon.xyz
    Oct 1, 2026, 7:37 AM

    @Ericson2314 funny, some of us theory people simply do not feel intelligent enough to do non-theory work… every side has their own insecurities.

    Whether I am in the culture war, I don’t know. I think it is more like acknowledging a reality that a previously valuable (but contentiously valuable) part of mathematics is not as valuable anymore.

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  • John EricsonEricson2314@mastodon.social
    Oct 1, 2026, 8:15 AM

    @jonmsterling Oh yes I'm bad at sudokus and even calculating the tip. But I have plenty of weaknesses and insecurities where I don't disparage the other thing and the jealousy is not sublimated :)

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