> And it claims maths is not everywhere. I just have to laugh.

Math is everywhere in the same sense that I need an understanding of physics to throw a ball. That is, yes, you can find it if you look, and sometimes you may even have a trained understanding of the application of some principle, but you do not need to be able to explain it or consciously apply it step by step.

Sometimes it would help to know how to apply it, or know other ways of solving a problem, but most people need far less conscious use of maths than people with a maths background tend to think.

> No, we do not. This is a factually false statement. We have to recognize that maths is open to everyone who is determined enough and has access to the internet or a library and that tribalism like this brings us nowhere. Anyone can participate in elite mathematics. If you come up with a proof for the Riemann hypothesis, go ahead and publish it! Nobody cares about your background if your work is good. Mathematics is blind to gender, race and class.

This both manages to not address the quote you were "answering" and be a demonstration of relative privilege at the same time.

It doesn't address it because the quote is not saying that elite mathematics isn't open to everyone in theory, but that it de facto is something that is mostly accessed by a certain group.

You brush against this yourself when you write that it is open to everyone "who is determined enough". And this is where privilege comes in.

People are shaped by their surroundings. If you grow up in a working class family, it is not always that you couldn't get into a top university and aim for a top job, but that even if you can you are vastly less likely to be aware of the opportunities, and to have the support network, and to have the contacts, or to have the same expectations of being able to do something, because you constantly see people around you who has achieved it, as someone growing up more privileged.

It is not just about money. I did not grow up in a rich household. But I did grow up in a household where getting a university degree and aiming for a job requiring one was considered so self evident it was never something we discussed. It wasn't "are you planning on going to university or trade school or start working after graduation?" it was "which universities are you applying to?" Most of my close relatives are academics, with three professors amongst my aunts and uncles.

As a result it never once crossed my mind growing up to go for a career in a manual trade for example.

Subtle differences, some backed by money, some just byproducts of growing up in families with money or connections or, as in my case, an innate expectation that your future should involve studying for a degree, makes a huge difference.

I've also noted in the past on HN that one of the things that growing up in Norway did for me was that I never had a sense of worrying about unemployment.

When I did my first startup, it was never a consideration that I might be without a job. Why would it? I'd be financially secure no matter what.

In my case it was because of a strong social security net first and foremost, but access to help from family etc. does the same. Even just living in a society where making enough to save to set aside a rainy day fun is something a majority can do makes a huge difference.

Growing up in a position of relative privilege alters things in many ways:

You may be expected to study instead of being expected to start earning as early as possible. You likely grew up with enough food to avoid being damaged by malnourishment. You're less likely to have urgent, stressful financial concerns make it infeasible to set aside time to ponder more intellectual issues. You're more likely to have a job that earns you enough to allow you to spend time on other things. You're more likely to have people around you that achieve something intellectual to inspire you. And so on.

So yes, "anyone" can participate in elite mathematics. And sometimes people from unexpected backgrounds does. But in practice, more privileged people are more likely to.

This isn't specific to mathematics - it applies to pretty much any field where "payoff" is uncertain or requires lengthy investment in education first, which causes less privileged people to self-select away to a greater extent than people with more privilege.