> Could someone elaborate on why this is interesting? The linked page doesn't have much context.
Just compare your question's tone with that, for example, and maybe that will explain why you're being downvoted [I did not, but I get why others are -- you deleted your other comment "Thanks for the downvotes..."]
https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=42+...
But mathematics is the foundation for so many fields that it's worth coming to explore it.
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/07/22/the-aesthetic...
"now, what?", what?
> What was learned from this?
That 42 is the sum of three cubes.
> Why did we look for a solution in the first place?
They did. I do not believe that you were involved.
> How is it important that a number can be a sum of three cubes?
People like things for their own sake. How is it important to have sex or drink a beer? Same thing. Also math has this uncanny tendency to turn out to be useful where you least expect it. Consider the primes. For a long time people might have asked the same question you are asking here, and yet now they are central in encryption and thus the digital finance market. Could not find a more capitalistic and materialistic use if you tried.
I don't know, it's just how I am.
> I doubt PhD+ people do that type of research "just for fun"
Well you'd be surprised. All the professional mathematicians I know do math for its own sake. Some amateurs also do it "just for fun", as you say.
> Someone answered elaborately, and I'm glad they did. Thanks anyway.
A bigger person than me, especially considering the tone of your question.