alt Hacker NewsThese things are not in conflict. It's possible that PhD quality has a regular distribution, and that most of them aren't contributing much.
These things are not in conflict. It's possible that PhD quality has a regular distribution, and that most of them aren't contributing much.
I agree with this. I guess you already believe they follow a bell curve.Then from your former comment you also believe it's worth it to lose many PhDs that don't contribute to also lose the few that do.
I guess the conflict is my value judgement that it's good to keep PhDs that don't contribute if it allows US to keep the ones that do contribute. I believe so for 2 reasons.
- Distinguishing between contributors and non contributors at scale is difficult.
- the value of research can be large from a few contributors.