Some people seem to think that pure mathematicians could just dominate any field they entered, if only they tried lol bring it

@alz_zyd_ Isn't this true? Econ adcoms prefer applicants from math or physics majors

everyone can do undergrad real analysis, which is what adcoms care about. Math beyond that level only matters for the <10% of grad econ students who are doing micro theory, and there are already a bunch of IMO medalists competing for those jobs. academic econ is just very competitive. the "failed mathematician becomes genius in another discipline" fantasy actually works if they switch to sociology or political science (I've known recent cases for both) but it doesn't work in econ, because a lot of elite math talent have already taken this route.

also, it's a common delusion among math people that they're the smartest people in academia. This is reinforced by the fact that they spend all day teaching calculus class to dumb undergrads and rarely engage with other disciplines. going by GRE verbal scores which are not taken into account in STEM (thus avoiding confounding factors) but highly correlated with g, physicists are smarter than economists, and economists are smarter than mathematicians.