[HillaryBriss]

> we won't lose equations and symbols. Ever. They are essential, and there is no possibility of real understanding without them.

i don't know.

sometimes i think these symbols and equations are just machinery created by deeply talented, deeply insightful people to help the rest of us arrive at correct statements and give us a little glimpse of a vast panorama of truth which their minds see intuitively, unaided by all the symbolic clutter.

[btilly]

Yes, and no.

Good mathematicians and scientists that I have personally known have a wide variety of styles of understanding and thinking. The first and most basic divide in mathematics is between people whose natural inclination is algebra versus analysis. The best at analysis seem to have a deep intuition like what you project. The best at algebra operate pretty directly with symbol manipulation.