I am not the poster you are replying to but I feel the need to point out that 200 papers isn't an obscenely high number that most people on HN will never reach.

I am not the poster you are replying to but I feel the need to point out that 200 papers isn't an obscenely high number that most people on HN will never reach. I had to include at least 5 sources minimum for each paper that I wrote in undergrad. That means reading at least twice that number to find ones actually relevant to the subject I chose. Add this to the papers they require you read merely to supplement the text book, and your average student with 4 classes a semester can average 20 to 30 papers easily. It's just reading research. It's not like you have to write the papers yourself. I'd guess for my graduating thesis alone I burned through 50 papers over 3 months looking for supporting fundamentals before figuring out my experimental direction was stupid and I had to start again from scratch.