[throwaway1979]

Apology accepted.

<quote>If you can't juggle this, then failing out is more honorable than degenerating to fit the system<quote>

Science isn't what you think, or I think. Rather, it is what the community thinks to be true at any given point in time. If the community as a whole judges by quantity instead of quality, that's what most scientists will conform to. It is important to understand why this is the case. I believe the primary reason is that quality is extremely hard to judge. Most conference program committees will tell you this. You can easily spot the diamonds and the turds. How do you sort out amongst the rest?

I also disagree with your overall attitude in which you consider academics dealing with their reality to be a "pointless existence". However, you are certainly entitled to your opinion as I am entitled to disagree with it :)

[seanmcdirmid]

The established part of a community wants a system that protects their best interests. "Dealing with reality" is not a pointless existence, but just pandering to and playing the system is. The system must be worked or worked around for good (whatever you think that is). This makes me happy at least, but to each their own rationalizations.

I have been on enough PCs to know how it works. Sometime that diamond is just a well written turd, and sometimes there is a diamond hiding inside the turd. Reviewing is much more than just sorting the rest.