That hypothesis requires substantiation. Just because 10 people in a room came up with a breakthrough doesn't mean a sociological process contributed positively to that breakthrough. People generally like socializing, so the base rate is going to be high by default. The breakthroughs might have been more numerous if they had each followed Grothendieck's advice (who is a contender for the world's most talented theory builder) and intentionally decorrelated from one another to free themselves from convention.
Referring to my list of examples as exceptional in the sense of being rare is rather unfair, given how numerous these examples are relative to the body of mathematical work we would consider incredible and especially relative to the desire of the average human to socialize. The fact that such a large % of that body of work occurred while the individual was in relative isolation is something we should pay attention to.
Referring to my list of examples as exceptional in the sense of being rare is rather unfair, given how numerous these examples are relative to the body of mathematical work we would consider incredible and especially relative to the desire of the average human to socialize. The fact that such a large % of that body of work occurred while the individual was in relative isolation is something we should pay attention to.