Whereas the are such contemptuous people it is just as bad to have the converse. In my experience the median number theorist is like today's physicists in that

Whereas the are such contemptuous people it is just as bad to have the converse. In my experience the median number theorist is like today's physicists in that they are resisting consolidation in favour of elaborateness. Traditionally, category theory was treated with much disdain especially by concrete mathematicians. The fact that hipsters now think category theory is cooler than combinatorics doesn't in my opinion warrant swaying again the other way—any kind of evangelisation is inherently fraught with personal agendas. It could be that the specific examples that he gave are really justified. But I don't really see the point of being a warrior for concrete mathematics or being a warrior for abstract mathematics. I don't even see the two as different fields rather different processes. And as I said earlier, I have found combinatorialists to be more contemptuous than category theorists, hipsters aside.