A mathematician, like a painter or a poet, is a maker of patterns. If his patterns are more permanent than theirs, it is because they are made with ideas. ↗
You notice patterns. White guests often are mortified - that word again - when they learn their ancestors owned slaves. But I've never had a black guest who was upset to learn about white ancestry that probably involved forced sexual relations. ↗
Linear thinking typifies a highly developed industry. It starts to get these patterns built into it somehow. I'm not sure how that happens, but certainly you take a look at dinosaurs. ↗