GRANT: So, Steve, talk to me about the interesting part of math, the creative side. So many kids think math is just drudgery plug-and-chug work. What does it mean to be creative as a mathematician?
STEVE: Well, there’s a question part and an answer part to what we do. The 1st part is to find good questions. The 2nd part is to turn well-formed questions into answers. Both demand some creativity, but it’s the questioning part that needs more emphasis in schools.
How do I know what to investigate or think about? Most people would be puzzled – “Isn’t math already done? Don’t we know all the numbers? Are you trying to think of bigger and bigger numbers or new kinds of shapes?” Well, no. There are all sorts of interesting theoretical and applied problems out there.