Oops. Cross-posted again.
To be clear: "ghetto-ized" was the term the Director used; it wasn't my description of the conversation. It's not a nice term, I agree. But English is not his first language, and I didn't hold it against him. I believe he was trying to describe the danger of becoming a narrow-minded individual. As I see it, this kind of narrow-mindedness is different from simply having incredible talent in a given domain. And it's different, too, from the kind of serial obsession that Kriston was describing. Either of these is perfectly compatible with being broad-minded in the good sense of the phrase. I myself know a number of great mathematicians who have very broad interests, and I know one or two who are rather narrow-minded. I prefer the former to the latter by a lot. Still, I agree that it is very difficult to know what people will actually do from their description of their intentions. It's better than it might have been, but I'll be much happier when I see that it's worked out.
BB
