5 ms·
> I couldn't help but laugh at this part. He proved a classic theorem in statistics and then precision engineered the actual submission to be roundly ignored.
by jlg23 10y ago
> I couldn't help but laugh at this part. He proved a classic theorem in statistics and then precision engineered the actual submission to be roundly ignored.
He simply did not care:
“I am used to being frequently ignored by scientists from [top-tier] German universities,” he wrote in an email. “I am not so talented for ‘networking’ and many contacts. I do not need these things for the quality of my life.”
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- geezerjay 10y agoSounds like a bullshit excuse. I don't understand why anyone would even argue that they intentionally do a poor job presenting their work because they somehow allege they are ignored. The only reason why anyone would go through such pains to get ignored is if they intentionally want to be ignored. And this does not make any sense, particularly in a "publish or perish" environment.
- S4M 10y agoIt is clearly stated in the article that Thomas Royen just wanted to get published quickly, as he isn't an academic.
- yomritoyj 10y agoI on the contrary find it perfectly reasonable. Academic publishing has its own share of bullshit and I can well understand someone, specially a retired person, wanting to give up on that kind of prestige in order to save time and energy for actual science. For example, as far as I know, Grigori Perelman has not published the work that won him an offer of the Fields Medal in any journal.
- mehaveaccount 10y agoI sympathize, after getting my PhD I went into the private sector. I often have side projects that could turn into publications, but massaging something through the publications process is a part-time job itself, and there's definitely quite a bit of who-you-know that can muddy things up.
- eutectic 10y agoIf he really didn't care, wouldn't it have been easier and more effective to only publish on the arxiv, and perhaps to tell people working on the problem about his solution?
- jessriedel 10y agoIf you're old and don't know LaTeX? Probably not, especially since he was an editor with the journal he published in.
- denzil_correa 10y agoHe did publish it on arXiv > Not knowing LaTeX, the word processer of choice in mathematics, he typed up his calculations in Microsoft Word, and the following month he posted his paper to the academic preprint site arxiv.org.