Well, that's not really what I mean. Obviously they had some concept of communicating music, somewhat standardized instruments, etc. Pythagoras didn't phrase hi

Well, that's not really what I mean. Obviously they had some concept of communicating music, somewhat standardized instruments, etc. Pythagoras didn't phrase his teachings using algebraic symbols either. I suppose what I mean is that > Reading math however does not guarantee ideas or intuition. is true, but the converse, having the mind for good mathematical ideas or intuition, almost surely means that you'll have very little trouble picking up mathematical notation (not just notation, but the reasoning and ability to write a proof, be it in natural language or some formal proof assistant language). Like yeah, before the written language there were great storytellers who couldn't write. But now that humanity does have standardized languages, it's way more rare to come across such a person.