I think the possibilities for cross disciplinary stuff to be valuable rather than an indication that the person choosing to plough a cross disciplinary furrow isn't good enough at the main thing is definitely ... Not new, but different from when I was at uni anyway. I changed horses midway through my degree, and did an unrelated part II - in my case this was because I'd been in a car crash and then in hospital for months and months and therefore had to repeat a year (because I missed a whole term and more). Nothing was the same after that, and I jumped at the chance to 'start fresh' with my part II and do something that hadn't already been impacted by what had happened to me. At the time, that possibly looked to people who didn't know the full story that I wimped out of my original subject - but it's the single thing that has propelled me through my subsequent career - I was a much more appropriately educated person for what I ended up doing as a result - and a much happier one because I no longer felt like I was being reminded every day of what had happened (it was pretty traumatic). The cross disciplinary and multi module options available to kids today fascinate me - because they offer so much potential - but I can't deny that they also bemuse me because that sort of breadth just wasn't there when I was young. The mention of financial maths modules is actually sort of a case in point (although not a great example because at the end of the day it's all still maths, just applicable rather than pure or applied).