Link: Math is / is not everywhere

Michael J. Barany on Scientific American: Mathematicians Are Overselling the Idea That “Math Is Everywhere”.

Barany argues that “math is everywhere” is …misleading I guess? … because everyone does not need to be a mathematician. Or so I think, the blog post seems a bit confused about its main point. However, it sparked some discussion that’s interesting on its own:

• The Renaissance Mathematicus: Some rather strange history of maths. Questions Barany’s account of the history of mathematics.

• AMS Blog on Math Blogs: Don’t Worry, Math is Still Everywhere. The place where I found about this kerfuffle.

• (I’ll skip the Twitter discussion. Conjecture: Twitter is not a suitable platform for productive discussion.)