Richard Hamming ( the person who came up with hamming distance ) has an interesting insight - based on the rate of sub-fields being created in mathematics - he concluded that by the year 2000 there would be 1000 different sub-fields for every mathematical subfield !<p>Do the people in power expect everyone to know everything ?<p>Knowledge is important - but society will stop working if everyone spends their lifetimes studying.<p>I read it in hacker news a while ago - the amount of <i>new</i> information we are introduced daily in 2015 was equivalent to what humans received in their lifetimes - for most of human history.<p>We need better methods to organize information - ( this is why google has its insane valuation - and no its not a bubble )<p>It should not take me 20 years to understand mathematics at the level of newton - how am I supposed to understand another 400 years of maths before I am homeless ?<p>Its a difficult question to answer but I think its a question my generation has to find an answer - and fast.