2019-08-01: On mathematical folklore rak
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Every math student at some point runs across "folklore" results.
Paul Taylor gives an entertaining description of what "folklore"
means in a comment [0] on Andrej Bauer's blog:
"This result is folklore, which is a technical term for a
method of publication in category theory. It means that
someone sketched it on the back of an envelope, mimeographed
it (whatever that means) and showed it to three people in a
seminar in Chicago in 1973, except that the only evidence
that we have of these events is a comment that was overheard
in another seminar at Columbia in 1976. Nevertheless, if
some younger person is so presumptuous as to write out a
proper proof and attempt to publish it, they will get shot
down in flames."
-- Paul Taylor
[0]
http://math.andrej.com/2012/09/28/substitution-is-pullback/#comment-21991
