Why aren't there any people nowadays who are masters of

>>8904778
you can't be a master of several different disciplines
the best you can hope for is a niche that people consider to be part of a couple disciplines so you can call yourself several things

>>8904778
Currently, humanity has gathered so much knowledge that a person won't discover more unless they dedicate their studies to a specific field. You have to be great at something, instead of okay at everything.

>>8904787
That's probably what people thought back in the day as well. There are still plenty of things to be discovered.

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>>8904778
>Why aren't there any people nowadays who are masters of several different disciplines?

>>8904796
Terence Tao does nothing but math. Show me some of his contributions to anything other than maths.

>>8904821
you consider all of math one discipline?

>>8904830
Mathematics is one field of study. Yes there are multiple sub fields in it as well, but it is still under the umbrella of Mathematics.

>>8904890
and Tao is a master of several of those sub fields...

>>8904796
>>8904932
Stop being so autistic, ffs. Tao is by no means a renaissance man. As a mathematician, you people disgust me. Why do you feel the need to imply that there are no other fields of value aside from mathematics?

And if that wasn't the point that you were trying to convey, then let me make this clear to you: being a master of several sub-fields of mathematics does not make one a "master of several different disciplines," you foolish mortal.

>>8904950
>Stop being so autistic, ffs. Tao is by no means a renaissance man. As a mathematician, you people disgust me.
you seem like the autistic one here

> Why do you feel the need to imply that there are no other fields of value aside from mathematics?
where did I imply that?

>being a master of several sub-fields of mathematics does not make one a "master of several different disciplines," you foolish mortal.
then what does? PDEs and analytic number theory and compressed sensing and the combinatorial work he does has virtually no overlap

>>8904821
>8904821

thought this was a fair and legitimate question until you said this, you want people to be masters of wide ranging topics from science and mathematics? each with their own incredibly niche and complex specialisations? how about also being president, an award winning novelist and 6 star general?

we only live ~ 80 years, and nearly everyone only does 1 degree, masters and PhD, each time specialising more and more. its flat out not possible with the level of knowledge required to be considered even proficient.

>>8904998
This is so sad to me, the whole universe and you only get to really know a small part of it

>>8904998
Hell, people in the past did it. You'd think with the vast abundance of knowledge we'd see more Renaissance man-esque folks around.

>>8905028

no, its in the fact the entirely opposite, at the time of Pythagoras and Euclid cutting edge mathematical research was the study of properties simple shapes, now 10 year olds learn this. "The more we learn, the less we know"

>>8905075
Obviously it seems trivial to us thousands of years later. Humans thousands of years into the future will probably think the same of us as we do with the greeks. Back then it wasn't trivial.

>>8904778

this is somewhat of a side-effect of the siloing higher education over the years. "voltaire's bastards" goes pretty deep into this if you want to check it out.

"interdisciplinary" might be a meme word for some but there is still a lack of cross-pollination between fields. i'll try to pull up some network diagrams relating to cross discipline citations in papers sometime this evening. sometimes this results in the same ground being tread between fields, but with different jargon

maybe now with the explosion of information access you don't need to be a master of multiple things to make breakthroughs. it may suffice to know how to find what information you need, and be able to see the ties that bind the seemingly unrelated. there are a number of new fields at the cross between others, a joke about data scientists is that they're the best statistician among coders, and the best coders among statisticians. pursue what you enjoy and learn as much as you can and don't concern yourself too much with being "the best" or you'll burn out pretty quick

>>8904778

also, funding. there is a capital incentive to research. how many people have the luxury of free research? as an individual you would likely be best rewarded sticking with something particular if you want to stick within institutions.