sigh NO, you say "damn, dude, are you seriously doing math for fun?" and then listen to what he says. The best conversations I've ever had have been interacting with people doing weird shit on planes. Last flight I saw someone writing up an inspection report on a '75 Targa and told him not to hate me because I drive a 996. I proceeded to have a 2-hour conversation with one of the world's foremost Porsche experts, a guy who gets paid by Larry Ellison to fly around buying Porsches for him, a guy who has bought and sold Porsches since he was sixteen years old, a guy who had so many stories about nameless rich people that I sat through four bourbons just goading him on. ALWAYS ask an expert about their expertise. You will learn shit you didn't even know you'd find interesting.
On the way back from Santa Fe, I sat next to a woman around my age, and I was working out some unit conversions in my notebook, pen and paper, just numbers and abbreviated units. She asks, "Looks like physics?", and I say, "Yeah! That's right, how'd you know?". And then she mentioned minoring in chemistry or something, but I forgot, because just a few exchanges later, we both went back to our own little worlds. Not even any awkwardness, just two people having some quality alone time on a plane. Which is about the most precious thing in the world after sharing a room to cut costs at a week-long conference.
Sorry Klein, bad joke about economics having basic logarithms and economic theory being a threat to national security. Of course I would at least ask. I've read enough of those papers to make me want to cry in my salad though. On the way back from Rwanda I actually met a dude who was pretty high up in the U.S. military. He served on peacekeeping missions in the Congo and stuff, and you bet he was opinionated on Trump. He knew a bunch of former colleagues that ended up promoted in the Department of State because they basically played the game. Shifted their plans in support of the new leader. It was an interesting perspective into how the inside of the government actually works and how the chain of command functions.