I saw the first two paragraphs of this quote from an interview of Hal Varian by The McKinsey Quarterly over at Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science.

Yesterday’s post made me think of this great scene between Michael Douglas and Katie Holmes’ characters in the movie Wonder Boys: Hannah Green : Grady, you know how in class you’re always telling us that writers make choices? Grady Tripp : Yeah. Hannah Green : And even though you’re book is really beautiful, I mean, amazingly beautiful, it’s… it’s at times… it’s… very detailed.

It is increasingly common for journals to employ fairly strict length limits on submissions. I’m actually a big fan of this. I feel that the most important points of most manuscripts will fit into 6-8 published pages and details that only a small fraction of an already small readership will be interested in can easily be placed in online supplements.

A few months ago Mike Kaspari over at Getting Things Done in Academia emailed me to ask “how do you use your Lab Wiki? Has it been worth it?“. I sent back much of what is included below and Mike asked if he could use some of my thoughts for a post on wikis. I of course said yes, but since GTDA has been silent for quite a while now I figured I’d go ahead and post on it myself.

I’ve been giving a fair bit of thought recently to the concept of “senior authorship”. Senior authorship is the practice whereby the last position on an author line is occupied by the leader of the lab in which the project was conducted (i.e., the P.I., the advisor, whatever terminology you prefer). Being the senior author on a paper is considered a sign of leadership on the project and is arguably at least as prestigious as being the first

Those of you who attend conferences will be familiar with the standard – walk up to someone you know, who is talking to someone you don’t, get introduced to new person – conference interaction.

“It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds” Samuel Adams

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. “Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!