This has been discussed before a couple of times - Bret Victor keyed me into the discussion of how symbolic maths makes the discipline seem alien by pointing at two things (can't remember in which lecture though): the mathematician's lament, and a letter to leading mathematicians and physicists including Einstein asking how they work with maths (can't remember any key words to Google this). The idea being that mathematical symbols are a tool of communication, not the way you actually work with maths (if you're exploring new ground, at least).

Edit: it was in here: http://worrydream.com/#!/KillMath