I’ve never doubted Math is awesome. What I did doubt, and to this day I have seen few who doubt with me, but good examples being Peter Thiel, more strongly, and Jared Diamond and Dan Dennett, less strongly, is that so many young talents should be drawn into physics and math (and chess). Why should we make people who are really smart do the things in which it is easier to detect being smart?
I’ve held much the same view for some time now. For a long time, I’ve seen plenty of intelligent people denigrate softer sciences, like psychology and sociology, for having a history of poor research, while fields like physics have better track records. Sure, that’s fair. But they lose me when they conclude that the softer sciences are unworthy of a high caliber thinker, and they should focus on the harder sciences. Shouldn’t they focus more on the fields where they’ll make the biggest impact?
The logic of comparative advantage is hard to argue against, but I wouldn’t be so quick to assume that comparative advantage is being ignored here. In our culture, the kinds of people that go into fields like physics and math at least stereotypically have—when they’re choosing majors—less socialization than the kinds of people who’re going into psychology and sociology, and it’s plausible to me that socialization and related skills have as much to do with success in those fields as raw intelligence does.
I’ve held much the same view for some time now. For a long time, I’ve seen plenty of intelligent people denigrate softer sciences, like psychology and sociology, for having a history of poor research, while fields like physics have better track records. Sure, that’s fair. But they lose me when they conclude that the softer sciences are unworthy of a high caliber thinker, and they should focus on the harder sciences. Shouldn’t they focus more on the fields where they’ll make the biggest impact?
The logic of comparative advantage is hard to argue against, but I wouldn’t be so quick to assume that comparative advantage is being ignored here. In our culture, the kinds of people that go into fields like physics and math at least stereotypically have—when they’re choosing majors—less socialization than the kinds of people who’re going into psychology and sociology, and it’s plausible to me that socialization and related skills have as much to do with success in those fields as raw intelligence does.