I always love the “Doc Smith” approach to mathematics, where Our Hero glances at an equation (sorry, “formula”), and instantly says “of course…!”My experience is usually more like “I don’t know what on earth that means” … scribble, scribble, scribble …”Oh, yes, but what a weird way of writing it” … scribble, scribble, scribble …”now *this* should be a much clearer way” … scribble, scribble, scribble …”oh, it’s identical to what I started with. But *now* I understand it.” I can’t *read* maths, I can only write it :-)A colleague of mine put it better: “mathematics is not a spectator sport”.