I’d certainly defer to you in relation to subject matter knowledge (my knowledge of number theory really only extends through 1965 or so), but this is not the sense that I’ve gotten from speaking with the best number theorists.
I’ll volunteer another reason not to necessarily pay attention to my viewpoint: I’m pretty clearly one of those weaker mathematicians, so I have obvious motivations for seeing all of that side work as relevant.
I suspect that one can get similar viewpoints from people who more or less think the opposite but that they aren’t very vocal because it is closer to being a default viewpoint, but my evidence for this is very weak. It is also worth noting that when one does read papers by the top named people, they often cite papers from people who clearly aren’t in that top, using little constructions or generalizing bits or the like.
I’ll volunteer another reason not to necessarily pay attention to my viewpoint: I’m pretty clearly one of those weaker mathematicians, so I have obvious motivations for seeing all of that side work as relevant.
I’ll note that I think that there are people other than top researchers who have contributed enormously to the mathematical community through things other than research. For example, John Baez is listed amongst the mathematicians who influenced MathOverflow participants the most, in the same range as Fields medalists and historical greats, based on his expository contributions.
It is also worth noting that when one does read papers by the top named people, they often cite papers from people who clearly aren’t in that top, using little constructions or generalizing bits or the like.
Yes, this is true and a good point. It can serve as a starting point for estimating effect sizes.
I’ll volunteer another reason not to necessarily pay attention to my viewpoint: I’m pretty clearly one of those weaker mathematicians, so I have obvious motivations for seeing all of that side work as relevant.
I suspect that one can get similar viewpoints from people who more or less think the opposite but that they aren’t very vocal because it is closer to being a default viewpoint, but my evidence for this is very weak. It is also worth noting that when one does read papers by the top named people, they often cite papers from people who clearly aren’t in that top, using little constructions or generalizing bits or the like.
I’ll note that I think that there are people other than top researchers who have contributed enormously to the mathematical community through things other than research. For example, John Baez is listed amongst the mathematicians who influenced MathOverflow participants the most, in the same range as Fields medalists and historical greats, based on his expository contributions.
Yes, this is true and a good point. It can serve as a starting point for estimating effect sizes.