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I see this comment getting downvoted, but I agree with the sentiment; it suffices to say that if there a compelling mathematical structure exists, there will be

I see this comment getting downvoted, but I agree with the sentiment; it suffices to say that if there a compelling mathematical structure exists, there will be people studying it. I imagine most graph theorists are hardly interested in the applications of their field, they just happen to be studying a structure which has much more intuitive practical applications (social networks, molecules, etc).

ska 4y ago
> there will be people studying it. "people studying something" == "nerds" ? [edit: i was probably too offhand about that, but what I meant is that the fact that people are engaged in something like this misses at least the conventional usage of "nerd", if wasn't obvious]
- actually_a_dog 4y ago
  No, "people studying abstract mathematical structures" == "nerds." I say this as a proud nerd.
  - ska 4y ago
    Having known a ton of mathematicians, I'm not at all convinced this holds (although it undoubtedly is a subset)
- klyrs 4y ago
  As a mathematician with a passing interest (read: no results or publications) in knot theory, yeah, we're nerds and proud.
- fnordpiglet 4y ago
  Yes. Nerds are people who show more than normal interest in non-mainstream subjects like Beyonces haircut.