I'm sure other people like this style of article. I'm just telling you I don't.
Even the steps 1-5 are a bit fluffy for me. If you had just told me "drop a height to the the hypotenuse and use similar triangles" I would have known what was meant, more succinctly.
Do you have a suggestion on where to get unfluffed math news? I sometimes look at the AMS notices or Terry Tao's blog, but they don't cover quite the same breadth as things like Quanta magazine. I don't know where to get the big news for major events from an unfluffed source. Usually by the time the news has hit Quanta magazine or the NYT, it has already been circulating somewhere else long enough to be old news. I just don't know where else to look.
I guess, but that's a bit of a firehose. Is there really nothing intermediate between the NYT and just scouring all the journals? Something like the AMS notices or Terry Tao's blog, but slightly more frequently updated?
I don't see why it has to be pretension or conceit. Personally I am often frustrated by mainstream maths/science coverage, but that's not because I think I'm special or I'm pretending to be smart: in fact I'm very ignorant, only moderately intelligent, and couldn't follow the journal articles even if I had the time and inclination. My preference is for layman's explanations that guide me through a topic and help me to achieve some level of genuine understanding, and it's perfectly sincere. I'm sure there are people like me but smarter or more knowledgeable, whose preferences are similar but pitched a bit higher.
Even the steps 1-5 are a bit fluffy for me. If you had just told me "drop a height to the the hypotenuse and use similar triangles" I would have known what was meant, more succinctly.
Do you have a suggestion on where to get unfluffed math news? I sometimes look at the AMS notices or Terry Tao's blog, but they don't cover quite the same breadth as things like Quanta magazine. I don't know where to get the big news for major events from an unfluffed source. Usually by the time the news has hit Quanta magazine or the NYT, it has already been circulating somewhere else long enough to be old news. I just don't know where else to look.