Yes – you can be 100% certain that there is an interesting problem being discussed with big number and complex stats I’m doing a Fermi calculation in my head while it’s happening! I mean why wouldn’t you? I don’t understand. I’m definitely not Carl Friedrich Gauss or Leonhard Euler (actually I think there is something embedded in the deeper understanding of Euler’s identity that tells us that human are not very bright at all compared to the depth of understanding needed to intuitively grasp the universe) – but anyway – even quite feeble Fermi calculations allow you to very clearly be three steps ahead when restructuring a business negotiation, a practical analysis of a trade deal or economic report in real time or seeing clearly how practical it is for a 1960s rocket to reach the moon. And I notice very smart people catch on to exactly what you are doing and maybe overestimate how smart you are . . . dumb people (or maybe just slightly smart people) just think you are guessing or making things up.
“…like a Shakespearean sonnet that captures
the very essence of love, or a painting that brings
out the beauty of the human form that is far more
than just skin deep, Euler’s equation reaches down
into the very depths of existence.“
-Keith Devlin, Stanford University mathematics professor