I don't call thoughts squiggles but the things that trigger those thoughts I do call squiggles. I don't understand the squiggles used to write Chinese or French. When I read or write English I certainly understand what the collection of squiggles or symulus mean. However, contrast Chinese symulus to those of English. What does the symulus ' Q ' mean? By itself it has no symbolate! I've been told that in Chinese each basic "letter" has a unique meaning. A speaker of Chinese relayed this information to me. So, I have no doubt of it's truth but true or false a guiding thought can be abstracted.
In mathematics, squiggles are defined and redefined over and over again and again using none other than more squiggles or even the same squiggles. Could this be a major source of confusion for those new to mathematics? Consider the following claims. ' T ' is a symulus, ' h ' is a symulus, ' e ' is a symulus, and ' The ' is a symulus. ' The ' is constructed using ' T ',' h ', and ' e '. Any speaker of English follows this process everyday and generally without much difficulty. Is mathematics any different?
Instead of writing a whole slew of symulus over and over again and again, it is common practice to use English to explain a thought and define a single symulus (not a collection of symulus) to mean the same thing. Then the symbol just defined is combined with other symulus with their own meanings established using English and the process continues Ad infinitum. This is how a copious amount of meaning is referred by a single symulus. In other words, mathematics is dense.
If I get bogged down while doing maths, I just look at the squiggles. Some of them are really goofy looking.
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