I had a professor once who said something similar. He phrased it differently though: in math people didn't want you to understand. Something about how it made

I had a professor once who said something similar. He phrased it differently though: in math people didn't want you to understand. Something about how it made them feel smarter. Amusingly, he's a top-notch theoretical computer scientist which is really a kind of math (especially what he does). From this, I gathered that its really the culture of the department, not the field that does this. One possible counter argument which I'm not in a position to evaluate: Theoretical CS is generally more grounded in "real" problems so maybe its easier for people in other areas to understand...?