I wish Terry the best.
But to be honest the reaction from the ivory tower here is seemingly quite telling to a layman watching from afar.
It looks far more like this was some extremely gatekept community where you were only allowed to work on sanctioned things if so deemed worthy. Better not step one someone’s toes lest you get exiled! How much progress was lost due to newcomers never working on a problem due to told not to?
It’s starting to make those old timey Usenet kooks look a whole lot less crazy to me. They seemingly were right about this part.
Mathematics was funded and supported by a whole bunch of janitors and blue collar workers busting their asses to let entire departments of thinking men and women work on hard problems for the betterment of society. If it was just a super special friends club the whole time that was gatekeeping what amounts to a hobby, it’s going to me much harder to justify such a social contract.
Honestly not even sure what to think at this point. Extremely disappointing to me the more I read from these people.
Admittedly it's also just really hard to come up with something better than the current track, but doing better has to start with being eager to explore different directions. Even if the new directions don't quite work just yet. And that eagerness just isn't there in the community, new directions are threats to the careers of sensitive people
What are you even talking about here? Mathematics was funded by janitors?
How do you like them apples?
You are right, we should get rid of their profession