Comment by magimas
5 hours ago
I don't think it's smart at all to position yourself in bucket 1.
There's a reason there are maybe a few hundred professional marathon runners in the world vs tens of thousands of professional mathematicians. Bucket 1 is basically an "amusement for the upper classes" type of deal. Any field that goes in that direction would have to shrink down massively.
It also devalues the field in my opinion from something really profound with actual impact in the world to a somewhat vain leisure activity. (basically going back to gentleman scientists) But I know other people would see it exactly the opposite way.
> There's a reason there are maybe a few hundred professional marathon runners in the world vs tens of thousands of professional mathematicians.
I don't buy this. I think there are other reasons why "professional marathon running" is a niche thing; it's probably just that it's not all that interesting to most people to practice in function of what it demands of your body, and not that interesting to patronize / watch.
Take woodworkers. There's probably more professional woodworkers than professional mathematicians. In terms of utility, everything a woodworker does, a machine can do more cheaply and more quickly. The main reason the craft survives is just that we attach intrinsic value to furniture made by humans the old-fashioned way. This is shared by craftsmen and those who buy.
And you could argue the same thing you did for marathon runners: custom furniture is just amusement for well-off people. Sure, but there's enough people with money to keep it afloat.