The title of the article is literally "Lessons from My Math Degree That Have Nothing to Do with Math". Of course tedium and frustration are not end goals of mat

The title of the article is literally "Lessons from My Math Degree That Have Nothing to Do with Math". Of course tedium and frustration are not end goals of mathematics. The author's point is not to e.g. explain the inspiration he felt when he gained intuition of Gauss's remarkable theorem. It's to explain the other side. Lockhart's lament is thrown around here a lot around here, and it does make a valid criticism of math education. On the other hand, I think we're justified treating math differently than art. We tell students that math will be useful because it's true. Math teaches you that viewing problems more abstractly will make it possible to gain more insights into them, and math provides frameworks for making those insights. This skill takes practice. More than most skills, it's clear when you're doing it well, which makes practicing it all the more effective. Math is beautiful, sometimes. I see this article saying the mundane parts are worth fighting through, too.