We all want merit to mean something, and we all may be tempted to reduce that meaning to something measurable and concrete like an SAT score. The reality, though, is that who deserves entry into an institution depends on what the institution exists to do.
CERN is a concrete example of worldwide, international co-operation - and a concrete example of peace. The place which makes, in my opinion, better scientists, but also better people.
The more workers you have in your organization, the better you are implanted in the working class, the more likely you are to come up with the concrete problems of the class.
For though we often need to be restored to the small, concrete, limited, and certain, we as often need to be reminded of the large, vague, unlimited, unknown.
Fiction is supposed to be immersive and supposed to be entertaining and narrative, so structures have to be buried a little bit. If they come foregrounded too much, it stops being fiction and starts being poetry - something more concrete and out of time.
Without troublesome work, no one can have any concrete, full idea of what pure mathematical research is like or of the profusion of insights that can be obtained from it.
I think it's important to understand the concrete ways things work and to respect that. But some things shouldn't be explained, and you have to respect that, too.
