

Steps to disillusion a young scholar - valkyrja
http://www.apps.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=22&Itemid=9

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api
It's not just academia. It's society-wide.

The whole thing in macroeconomic policy about optimizing economies for "GDP
growth" is similar. Spend a million on healthcare, GDP goes up by a million.
Spend a million on science, GDP goes up by a million. Spend a million on war,
GDP goes up by a million. Spend a million on building a giant mountain out of
rubber dog shit, GDP goes up by a million. See the problem? GDP is a value-
neutral statistic.

The quantity-not-quality publish-or-perish mentality in academia is exactly
the same. Quantity and impact of publication is a value-neutral opaque
statistic like GDP, and optimizing for such statistics yields economies of
ritualized masturbation.

To make matter worse, optimizing for GDP growth in economics or for
quantity/impact of publications in science might be like measuring the quality
of a computer programmer by lines of code written. Wouldn't an economy that
can deliver an equivalent standard of living _using less money_ be a _better_
economy? It would be more efficient, more sustainable, etc. I know a scientist
who authors a few awesome ground-breaking papers is a lot more interesting
than a scientist that churns out endless papers about minutia.

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valkyrja
Agreed. This is from a book that describes how professionals are made, how
they are indoctrinated (which isn't a too harsh word to use about the
educational system). Yet, the educational system is also about creating
individuals who will follow their employer's outlook and doctrine thereby
working to create profit.

It's all about the money. Sadly.

