It comes from Eric Drexler, the nanotech visionary. Pointer from Robin Hanson who I’m sure understands much more of what Drexler says than I do.
My guess is that at the margin, scientific communication would benefit from more blogging and less effort put into journal articles. We have a tenure mechanism that exalts the peer-reviewed journal article. This distorts resource allocation, leading to inefficiency in scientific communication and discovery.
Robin says he plans to cut back on blogging, which suggests that he does not agree with me about the relative marginal benefits.
READER COMMENTS
Ben Casnocha
Dec 5 2008 at 4:09pm
“Plans on cutting back from blogging.” – I’ll believe it when I see it! People talk about doing this all the time…but keep coming back.
Lord
Dec 5 2008 at 10:39pm
Perhaps he agrees with you as to the tenure effect, and the associated reputation.
Brad Warbiany
Dec 6 2008 at 1:43am
Robin may believe that more blogging would be better for science in general, while also realizing that getting into peer-reviewed journals would be far more beneficial for his personal career.
I may think that it’s stupid for the government to send out “stimulus” checks. It sure as hell doesn’t mean I’ll send mine back to them!
Arnie
Dec 6 2008 at 11:52am
“Peer-reviewed”?
Blogs are the most peer-reviewed thing on earth. Now, to be far, we commenters are not your peers. But that could be accomplished with controls put on who comments, and maybe moving us hacks to some secondary commenting list. Hey, I actually like that idea.
The blog world is a much more rigorous environment than journals. That is why I consider both you and Bryan much more courageous than a writer for some journal that ends up in the university library basement.
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