my Z_spiritual(T) has been unusually high recently because all of this slop is supercharging the value I've been generating through ego-confrontation and progressive liberation

Years ago I was an academic peer reviewer and hated it, you've probably seen published work thats low in quality - you wouldn't believe how low quality the unpublished crap is. I cannot even imagine the absolute bundle of garbage that must be handled by these unpaid reviewers today. We need a better system.

> Jesus Christ. I’ve heard that Cambridge University has an open position in their school of education . . . this kind of thing would fit in very well there, no?

What a disgusting, tasteless joke.

Another possible answer to the "What's in it for him?" question:

The Everest effect.

George Mallory: "The first question you will ask, and the one I have to answer is, 'What's the point of climbing Mount Everest?' And my answer should be, 'It's no use.' There is not the slightest prospect of any gain. Oh, maybe we can learn a little about the behavior of the human body at height, and medicine can change our observations for aviation purposes. But nothing else could come of it. We will not bring back a little gold or silver or gemstones or coal or iron. We will not find soil or earth that we can grow crops that produce food. There is no point. So if you can't understand that there's something in humans that responds to the challenges of this mountain and goes to meet those challenges, then the struggle that ensues is a struggle from life itself upwards, and you won't see why we're leaving. What we get from this adventure is just joy. We don't live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to enjoy life. That is the meaning of life and the purpose of living."

Why generate all of these papers? Because, for the first time, he can.

Doesn't have to be for the money or fame or potential for speaking engagements. It could simply be that he wants to test the limits of what's possible.

Call me crazy, but if you can't explain the idea in 10 pages or less, you don't understand the idea.

(For instance, 58 pages, 80 pages ... I don't think of these as normal academic length if this is the main body content ...)

Squatting seems like the most plausible explanation. Explaining an idea to your friend at a bar doesn't make it "yours", but publishing a manuscript does.

The SSRN ID of the page linked to by the article [0] is not the same as the SSRN ID [1] linked from a chicagobooth.edu scholar by that name [2]

0. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=170...

1. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=228...

2. https://www.chicagobooth.edu/faculty/directory/p/nicholas-po...

Nicholas Polson is an anagram for Nonsocial Slop.

"Pols" backwards is "Slop".