In a recent NPR Science Friday broadcast Prof Eugenia Cheng talks about why she loves mathematics:

... those of us who love math love it for some of the same reasons that people hate it. So everyone hates it because they think it's about memorizing and about formulæ and about getting the right answer. Whereas we love it, probably because ... you don't have to memorize anything, because it's all about understanding, and there isn't a right answer. There are many possible different worlds in which different things can be true. ...

... it's all about understanding —yes, and ...

_{(cf Hal Clement (2003-11-05), Cakes, Custard, and Category Theory (2016-02-14), Beyond Infinity 2017-07-24),Mathematical Illumination (2017-08-07), Explicable and Inexplicable (2017-08-20), Eugenia Cheng on Thinking (2017-12-30), ...) - ^z - 2019-03-15}