[Todos] The survival of the fittest

[fvicent en dm.uba.ar]

Ref: Publish or Perish 21/9/2008

Con la siguiente carta traté de explicar a un colega extranjero el destino
de un profesor en nuestra universidad.
=====================================
Dear Colleague:

It's been a long time, I hope you are doing all right. I remember you were
a Jonathan Swift's fan. If you like the genre of satire you must agree
that
irony is the best weapon to vex humbugs.

Imagine you were a faculty member of the Academy of Lagado occupying the
Operational Research chair. You are a very good teacher, indeed your
students enjoy the way you exemplify theory by exhibiting real world cases.
No wonder, you have worked for so many years as an OR practitioner in
steelmaking mills, textile factories, telephone companies, the works! So
far so good.

Now, every 7 years you do not have a sabbatical year as expected, instead
the Academy of Lagado posts an ad in 'The Times' inviting every OR man in
the Kingdom of Laputa to try his foot in kicking you off the chair. With
that purpose in mind, they ask the candidates to send their curriculum
vitae. Never mind with details, what the council of the Academy wants to
know is how many papers the contestants have published in OR journals in
the past 3 years.

The outcome of the contest is simple enough: if the maximum score of all
the candidates is less than or equal to your number of papers, you retain
your post. Otherwise, you are given the sack and your place is taken by
the
fellow scoring highest.

For the sake of the argument, let us asume you survive the ordeal then they
will let you live in peace for the next seven years. This recurrent event
will continue until one of the following results show up first:

1) You are terminated.
2) You are forced into retirement at 65.
3) You die (of a heart attack possibly)

Of course, I am assuming you are a commoner. Were you a member of the
King's court you would be nominated professor Emeritus.

I will enjoy your comments.

Fabio Vicentini