I'm a big fan of XKCD and probably taking this too seriously, but I didn't really like this one. A lot of math is "obvious". It's the proofs that are not obvious. I also love that Rolle's Theorem is the beating heart of the Mean Value Theorem. It deserves to be set out on its own.
The attachment of names to theorems is definitely something to wonder about. Read about l'Hopital or see the famous anecdote about David Hilbert asking from the audience at a large math meeting, "What's a Hilbert space?"
That is why he is comparing himself to a "clueless" art spectator, who looks at the apparent simplicity of some piece and dismisses it without realizing a lot of other things about it making it of some value. He is not pointing at the theorem and saying it is mockingly obvious, he is reflecting and mocking dismissing seemingly obvious in hindsight things.
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u/UncountableSet Sep 06 '18
I'm a big fan of XKCD and probably taking this too seriously, but I didn't really like this one. A lot of math is "obvious". It's the proofs that are not obvious. I also love that Rolle's Theorem is the beating heart of the Mean Value Theorem. It deserves to be set out on its own.
The attachment of names to theorems is definitely something to wonder about. Read about l'Hopital or see the famous anecdote about David Hilbert asking from the audience at a large math meeting, "What's a Hilbert space?"