[Todos] On bullshit

[fvicent en dm.uba.ar]

Esta es una carta enviada a dos colegas extranjeros
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Dear Moshe and David

I read the paper "On bullshit" by Frankfurt. I was seized by a convulsion
of laughter. I dont know whether there exists the English word
"bullshitter" but if there is, then I am sorry to inform you that the
University of Buenos Aires has plenty of them. In Spanish there is no an
equivalent word. Umberto Eco, a well known philosopher, classifies mental
retardation in four types: idiot, imbecile, stupid and crank. The stupid
is the one who is an expert to speak in ambiguity, uncertain of meaning,
equivocal words, etc. To discuss with the stupid can drive you mad.

The bullshitter was not born stupid he was forced by the rules of the game
to become such. As  I told you the professor undergoes a contest every
seven years, and he fails if his number of papers is less than n+1. As a
consequence he has to solve an optimization problem , i.e, maximize the
number of papers. But as this number tends to infinity the quality of his
research tends to bullshit.

This situation is not discussed openly at Laputa, you are supposed to
behave as if everybody is doing serious work. I was forced into academy
when I was unemployed after working as an applied mathematician for 30
years. I faced a contest with two other academic candidates. I spoke first
in front of three solemn professors we call "jurados". I started by
describing the method I used to solve a machine scheduling problem in a
nylon factory. I barely said two words when a jurado interrupted me to ask
how many papers I had published in the last two years... The final result
was:

The winner is Tom Hanks: 22 papers in Differential Equations
2nd -  Harrison Ford: 14 papers in Differential Equations
Last - Fabio Vicentini: 70 technical reports in 11 industrial
concerns...but no papers

Cheers,
Fabio

PS: You may wonder why I am sending this letter to you. The fact is that, 
at Laputa, remarking that the King is naked is not proper, they may think 
I was nuts.