[dunkelheit]

I think you highlight an important issue. I had an impression from the interview that he talks about going for years publishing nothing with considerable amount of braggadocio. The question is, what did he do all these years? If he pursued ambitious and risky avenues of research that didn't pan out, then he has all the rights to brag, as that's what tenured academics are supposed to do in theory (but still he would do everyone a favor by writing up some of that stuff). If, OTOH, he just decided to coast after doing some excellent work, then I am much less sympathetic.

Contemporary academia may be obsessed with publishing, but there is some middle ground between that and publishing a paper every 6 years. A certain webcomic comes to mind: http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2495