"Rent-Seeking" is trying to capture eternally recurring payment for something you did or acquired one time.
Mathematicians acquired their skills over long hours of study, but weren't asking to be paid just to sit around passively being smart, but to keep working on new results. It is the lost opportunity to do work they are lamenting, not the lost opportunity to sit on their laurels. So no, it doesn't sound like rent-seeking.
Mathematicians acquired their skills over long hours of study, but weren't asking to be paid just to sit around passively being smart, but to keep working on new results. It is the lost opportunity to do work they are lamenting, not the lost opportunity to sit on their laurels. So no, it doesn't sound like rent-seeking.