Used ChatGPT. I subscribed to Claude again this week, so I will see if it comes up with a similar argument as ChatGPT.
My first thought was haha I guess all my contributions are useless, but then I realized that some of my work actually would be in textbooks of certain subjects (should one be written) and I felt a flash of satisfaction
In a similar vein, I think the number of citations is a good proxy to decide whether a certain piece of research was worth one's time (and society's taxes). When I referee a paper, I always know quite well whether the article will get cited a lot or will only end up with some self-citations by the authors before disappearing into oblivion. Unfortunately, the majority of publications these days fall in the latter category. One can hope that some positive side effects remain, such as the training of the author to improve his critical thinking skills, but I'm skeptical.
Used ChatGPT. I subscribed to Claude again this week, so I will see if it comes up with a similar argument as ChatGPT.
In a similar vein, I think the number of citations is a good proxy to decide whether a certain piece of research was worth one's time (and society's taxes). When I referee a paper, I always know quite well whether the article will get cited a lot or will only end up with some self-citations by the authors before disappearing into oblivion. Unfortunately, the majority of publications these days fall in the latter category. One can hope that some positive side effects remain, such as the training of the author to improve his critical thinking skills, but I'm skeptical.