When math educators want to push themselves to the limit, by being the best in their category or field, where they are willing to take enormous risks and bear the pain to be rewarded.
Recipients of the Fields medal—the mathematical equivalent of the “Nobel Prize In Mathematics”—have a penchant for mathematical masochism in order to stand out from the crowd, because these “extreme mathematicians” know that “no pain, no gain.”
by MathPlus November 1, 2018