>back in the day >have no special credentials or be from

>>3309291
You grew up

I think it's swung back away from that now. Most people recognize that tertiary education is bunk

Most basic discoveries, inventions, and other revolutionary findings were founded or created before or in the dawn of modern scholarship. Now most things out there that are to be discovered or innovated in their research are heavily specialized in content that some 'Renaissance man'esqe dudes out there can't just simply pick up some side subject to study as a hobby and discover shit anymore. If you truly discover some groundbreaking shit but aren't an creditable expert in the field you discovered it in, you can always find some scholar who is actually qualified and respected to co-author whatever paper or journal you want to publish and vouch for you. Do note that for every oneof those non-specialized autodidacts 'inventors' back then that you read about, there were probably 15-20 peers of each of them that were wrong with everything they published and you don't hear about them. The vetting in modern scholarship is far more often useful and beneficial to society in near most cases compare to when it isn't.

>>3309291
Virtually all of the low hanging fruit of scientific knowledge has been collected already.

The more advanced that science becomes, the less believable it is that some guy fucking around in his garage will have made a major discovery.