"... you assess adults by a more worldly measure of financial standing and recognition by a public which has never shown any great ability in distinguishing between knaves and fools and good public servants"
Ah, yes. I was just in a completely different discussion, arguing this point. In my profession, the oblivious incompetent with good marketing skills is generally well-compensated (because the end user has no ability to independently assess the quality of the work), and the competent person who is painfully aware of her own shortcomings (because the field is too broad for anyone to know it all) is generally not. The market is not good at recognizing what adds value, and what's hype.
