Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

> Math is also symbol soup. But those symbols mean things and they’ve usually been designed to compose nicely. Mathematicians using symbols—just like writers using alphabets—are able to use those symbols to concisely and precisely convey complicated concepts to one another.

I just don't understand why one may take maths of all things as a positive example of something readable, when it's widely known to be utterly inscrutable to most humans on earth and even so many papers have differing conventions, using the same symbol for sometimes widely different or sometimes barely different things



Literally every language is inscrutable to most humans on Earth. But they all work fairly well for those in the club that know them!




Consider applying for YC's Winter 2026 batch! Applications are open till Nov 10

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: