Too many physicists, chemists and biologists perceive the social sciences and humanities as less rigorous and less intellectually demanding domains than their own. Research into expert performance calls these attitudes into question.

Thousands of hours of deliberate practice are needed to become highly competent in any endeavour that requires skill (see The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance Cambridge Univ. Press; 2006). Moreover, the time invested before making a world-class contribution to any major field is similar, be it in chess, music, basketball, history or flying a plane (A. Ericsson and R. Pool Peak Bodley Head; 2016).

So, distinguished scholars from different fields are likely to be comparably proficient in the skills relevant to their work. Assuming that top researchers have devoted roughly the same amount of effort to developing their domain-specific skills, the wider implication is that different fields are roughly equally advanced in terms of dealing with the challenges they face.

If physics, say, seems more developed than social science, then this may be because the field has been established for longer or that the challenges are easier to overcome.