Their insights echo those of Alfred North Whitehead, the renowned mathematician and philosopher of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when talking about the benefits of math notation, like a plus sign or an equals sign. His 1911 math text explained, “By relieving the brain of all unnecessary work, a good notation sets it free to concentrate on more advanced problems, and in effect increases the mental power.”16 With the right notation, something as philosophically complex as the nature of “plus-ness” becomes a simple, known part of an equation.
