Paradigmatic career-making ideas and papers are rare and take years or decades to produce. But academia doesn’t run on that coin—just regular papers and small ideas.
Is it too much to suggest that 1 every few months is possible for someone who ought to be a professional rationalist, who reads the literature carefully and thinks through all their ideas, who keeps a pad & pen handy to jot down random notes, who listens to the occasional off-kilter but insightful student questions, and so on?
That is 4 ideas a year, and over a graduate student’s 4-year term, 16 possible papers. Not counting any prevarication.
“How long did it take you to learn this new thing?”
Paradigmatic career-making ideas and papers are rare and take years or decades to produce. But academia doesn’t run on that coin—just regular papers and small ideas.
Is it too much to suggest that 1 every few months is possible for someone who ought to be a professional rationalist, who reads the literature carefully and thinks through all their ideas, who keeps a pad & pen handy to jot down random notes, who listens to the occasional off-kilter but insightful student questions, and so on?
That is 4 ideas a year, and over a graduate student’s 4-year term, 16 possible papers. Not counting any prevarication.