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"We're all worried," as what it means to do research (in my field, Theoretical CS) seems to be shifting, and shifting fast. What to do? Senior researchers must lead by example, knowing that not everything will pan out. What I'm suggesting below may not work everywhere, but here's my own advice: 1/

Clément Canonne

@ccanonne.github.io

🧵To seniors: - move away from bean-counting (easy, right?). E.g., when evaluating CVs or grants or applicants, ask for the top 3 pubs, with a paragraph explaining why these are important. Hiring on a CV of 50 pubs was always sort of meaningless, now it's become meaningless-er (!) and gameable. 2/

1/8/26, 10:53 pm8 reposts68 likes

Peter Vamplew

@amp1874.bsky.social

8 Aug

The difficulty will be that the world university rankings still largely rely on bean-counting. In a sane world those rankings would be irrelevant, but while lack of Govt funding leaves Australian (and UK) Unis so reliant on intl students, those rankings will still heavily influence Uni strategy.

Gaël Varoquaux

@gaelvaroquaux.bsky.social

8 Aug

Inria has been doing this (asking for the 5 most important contributions and for a motivation of these) for recruitment and promotion for more than a decade.

Clément Canonne

@ccanonne.github.io

1 Aug

- stop the public hand-wringing and doomerism. Things are worrying and scary, yes, but this is (y)our job to navigate it (you/we have the stability and, allegedly, the experience). We can afford to think about it and try things out! If we project despair publicly, then how is that going to go? 3/

Rohit

@defenestrator948.bsky.social

3 Aug

Deeply appreciate this. Thanks for putting this out there. I’m seeing a lot of undue doom

Clément Canonne

@ccanonne.github.io

1 Aug

- be there for the junior researchers, and be generous with your funding/opportunities. Again, You (we? I feel old) have more stability, more of a cushion. Go out of your way to ease the path of the next generation and shield them. 4/ (end of personal, biased advice for senior TCS researchers)

Paul in Raleigh philologon.bsky.social

@philologon.bsky.social

2 Aug

If I may Shield them from palace intrigue and unimportant turmoil. Don't Shield them from the new difficulties of the present research funding environment. Walk through it with them. Shielding younger professionals from long term trends doesn't help them learn how to deal with it when you are gone