alt Hacker NewsAuthorship and credit seem like anti-patterns in math. One of the least accessible parts of math to me is that literally everything is named after people. Navier-Stokes? Who? I don't really want to know to be honest, I'd rather the ideas and information be framed with a prioritization towards understanding, not author's reputation. I feel the same way about all of the Greek notation, it's 2026, can we not use something in regular circulation to broaden the audience?
Maybe AI can actually drastically improve this situation by bridging the gap between those "in the club" and those who want to do something useful with mathematical ideas.
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Reputation and desire for recognition are an incentive system that have gotten us a long way. They are a way of celebrating and honoring the human reach for excellence. If you like humans, that's a good thing.
I like the UK's archaic system of measures for the similar reasons. It has the stamp of humanity. For those who think about such things it reminds of who we were. Without historical context we think less of ourselves.
Why wouldn't you honor the people that came up with a particular proof or approach? Do you also not care about who created a given artwork?
To be honest if Greek letters and things being named after the people that discovered them are that big of a hurdle to you the chances of you actually being able to do something useful with these mathematical ideas are probably close to 0 since those are by far the easiest parts of dealing with advanced mathematics.