Not sure why I even read this..I can't stand to think in numbers..I have always hated mathematics..I get mental blocks, my head will not go there..
Having said that, my reading of this indicates that this is way more than solving a math problem. I think this guy has invented or uncovered might be the better term to use, a new branch or offshoot of mathematics in the process of solving this problem.
If so, it's the biggest thing to happen in my lifetime insofar as the science of math.
Know the feeling, I have the same problem when trying to understand the concept of Cold Heat.
I was just over generalizing and being the typical smartass that I am. I understand that I can’t even begin to understand his proof. I’m educated in Mathematics, but nowhere remotely near anything like this.
Like you, mathematics is not my friend; but I think this story is fascinating. My sense of it is similar to your conclusion, especially from these portions of the article:
To complete the proof, Mochizuki had invented a new branch of his discipline, one that is astonishingly abstract even by the standards of pure maths. “Looking at it, you feel a bit like you might be reading a paper from the future, or from outer space,” number theorist Jordan Ellenberg, of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, wrote on his blog a few days after the paper appeared.
In December 2014, he wrote that to understand his work, there was a “need for researchers to deactivate the thought patterns that they have installed in their brains and taken for granted for so many years”.