I'm the odd counterexample, where proofs were what made math come alive for me. I suppose you could say that the utility of math is in furnishing tools for proo

I'm the odd counterexample, where proofs were what made math come alive for me. I suppose you could say that the utility of math is in furnishing tools for proofs, but that's probably not what most people mean. ;-) Utility was for physics, which I also majored in.