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[glittergal96]

Isn't that also decrying olympiad problems? They only use elementary theorems and lemmas to achieve things that cannot be done by other means. For example, functional equations, and inequalities cannot be bashed using calculus, and aren't subject to most, if not all analysis techniques.
This is basically the same as your comment on "bag of tricks" applied in a similar manner.

Indeed, and I had this in mind when making my original post. Although the tricks you use and the problems you tackle in olympiad are a lot more varied so I find them more fun.

It's still pretty different to what real maths is like though. T. Tao had a good article about this on his blog.

 

[Paradoxica]

Indeed, and I had this in mind when making my original post. Although the tricks you use and the problems you tackle in olympiad are a lot more varied so I find them more fun.

It's still pretty different to what real maths is like though. T. Tao had a good article about this on his blog.

Seen the article. Only gives me more reason to continue chasing the purity of conjecture proving.

Strictly speaking, When Gauss died, he left not conjectures, but excercises.



Calm down people, it's a joke.