Can't you two see that you are talking at total cross-purposes? You are talking about success by other people's measures: getting your paper accepted, being ra

Can't you two see that you are talking at total cross-purposes? You are talking about success by other people's measures: getting your paper accepted, being rated as "top" by other people, best in class this, accepted that. He is not talking about those things at all. You are never going to see eye to eye if you can't both A) see you are talking about entirely different things, and B) meet somewhere in the middle.