[aleph_minus_one]

> The ironical thing about the "Follow what creates value for other people" advice - for math graduates in particular - is that most of modern math doesn't seem to be motivated this.

I do believe that the results of math research (even the pure one) create an insane value for other people, but that we live in a world full of ignorant people who don't see this insane value (yet). Thus, the modern math research may not be motivated by this criterion, but in most cases nearly tautologically creates a lot of value for other people.

[mitthrowaway2]

I agree. You can still make a great living just by sifting through the nuggets unearthed by people like Gauss, Euler, and Laplace, which continue to pay dividends centuries later, let alone inventing new math.

[chii]

also, creating value is different from capturing value.

You can create value but not capture it (or don't have the ability to capture it). But somebody tends to capture the value, and if it's not you, it's probably going to be your boss (or their boss, etc).