I think it would be really useful for someone with a mathematical background to develop this further. The flexibility/dedication tradeoff seems about the same as the explore/exploit tradeoff, which I understand to have been studied a fair amount. I’d imagine there’s a lot of theory that could be applied and would allow us to make better decisions as a community, especially now that lots of people are thinking about specializing or funding specialization. I bet we could avoid significant mistakes at a low cost by quantifying investments in each area and comparing them to theoretical ideals.
I think it would be really useful for someone with a mathematical background to develop this further. The flexibility/dedication tradeoff seems about the same as the explore/exploit tradeoff, which I understand to have been studied a fair amount. I’d imagine there’s a lot of theory that could be applied and would allow us to make better decisions as a community, especially now that lots of people are thinking about specializing or funding specialization. I bet we could avoid significant mistakes at a low cost by quantifying investments in each area and comparing them to theoretical ideals.