I frequently have to read math/cryptography papers as part of my research, but I'm neither a mathematician nor a cryptographer, which makes things a bit of a sl

I frequently have to read math/cryptography papers as part of my research, but I'm neither a mathematician nor a cryptographer, which makes things a bit of a slog. I think this is mostly just down to me not being the target audience, but so many papers seem to be more of a "proof that the author understood this thing", rather than an attempt to actually convey that understanding. It reminds me of when programmers needlessly optimize or "golf" their code - yes, very clever, but now I can't understand what it does.