There are three reasons that you might want to get closer to [the] truth. First, perhaps this is an intrinsic good. Number two, understanding, because you can have knowledge without understanding. Understanding feels good. But society care more about the utility, about the impact. And then number one, the moral good of truth seeking is sidelined by two and three. The moral argument for truth is messy.
Cycle of truth seeking
- Truth is good.
- We come to understandings by being curious for the truth.
- But we find out that the truth is messy, thus we try to understand deeper.
I’ve started to think of open problems as potentially tools for sharpening our understanding of math. These open problems allow people to test ideas, to be creative, to apply new ideas from related fields. They give people a reason to learn new things, or even build entirely new tools.
We are creative and generating new ideas when we understand.
[O]pen problems in math is that the world gets better when they’re solved, but not because the problem is solved.
More than ever we should focus on the process not the result.