Surely the optimist would take this question to assume that someone is interested in expanding their math knowledge and might not have an issue getting exposed to more math.
I think your answer is akin to telling a french tourist that they shouldn't try and learn basic conversational french because they could never hope to understand the complexity of the complete language.
I understand your point. I just suspect, perhaps wrongly, that people asking the question on HN may be inclined to base serious stuff on their tourist's understanding of French. There's a place for tourist math, but it can be dangerous when misused.
I think your answer is akin to telling a french tourist that they shouldn't try and learn basic conversational french because they could never hope to understand the complexity of the complete language.