The Fall of the Theorem Economy by David Bessis
Shares rank 28 of 60 articles by recommenders
Readers call it an insightful essay on how mathematical progress may change, worth reading despite its length. Critics say it is far longer than needed.
Readers call it an insightful essay on how mathematical progress may change, worth reading despite its length. Critics say it is far longer than needed.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 86%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Insightful, interesting essay worth reading
“There is a long and interesting recent essay on that topic by a mathematician”
Comment from 20 May 2026 in “An OpenAI model has disproved a central conjecture in discrete geometry” “that was one of the most insightful long form pieces I've read in a long time”
Comment from 20 May 2026 in “An OpenAI model has disproved a central conjecture in discrete geometry” “It's worth a read, even if it's long AF.”
Comment from 28 Jul 2026 in “Discovering Cryptographic Weaknesses with Claude” Thoughtful view of mathematical innovation
“solving a big conjecture was a cryptographic proof that you had come up with a genuine conceptual innovation”
Comment from 20 May 2026 in “An OpenAI model has disproved a central conjecture in discrete geometry” “has the best thoughts on this since Thurston”
Comment from 8 Oct 2026 in ““Math 2.0” will need to value mathematical progress more holistically”
Other articles people recommend
The four most recommended other articles, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Programming as Theory Buildingby Peter Naur | 32 | 0 | 100% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Ur-Fascismby Umberto Eco | 18 | 2 | 90% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Politics and the English Languageby George Orwell | 14 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | Approved |
| The Grug Brained Developer by Carson Gross | 13 | 1 | 93% | 9 | — | Approved |
| The Fall of the Theorem Economy by David BessisThis page | 6 | 1 | 86% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
6 of the 8 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“has the best thoughts on this since Thurston”
“It's worth a read, even if it's long AF.”
“It was also about 10x longer than it had to be because an LLM was heavily involved in its writing.”
“that was one of the most insightful long form pieces I've read in a long time”
“solving a big conjecture was a cryptographic proof that you had come up with a genuine conceptual innovation”
“There is a long and interesting recent essay on that topic by a mathematician”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.