YHK - yet another hacker news clone

Nicholas Polson has authored 258 academic papers in 2026 (so far)

43 points zaik 53 minutes ago 22 comments

coderintherye 24 minutes ago | parent

If AI submissions, then why not go a step further and have AI reviewers?

Perhaps this will help bring more scrutiny to the metric of publishing quantity not being as valuable as it has been treated.

canjobear 22 minutes ago | parent

In practice this already happens, unfortunately.

12948717 22 minutes ago | parent

"Pols" backwards is "Slop".

_joel 21 minutes ago | parent

Polson - NoSlop

it was right in front of you :)

zero_shift 17 minutes ago | parent

Nicolas Polson?

Sin: A Slop Colon!

buran77 21 minutes ago | parent

> “An Interdisciplinary Synthesis Across Economics, Psychology, Biology, Philosophy, Game Theory, and Spiritual Tradition.”

If one were inclined, they could shorten the title to "AI Synthesis Across Economics, Psychology, Biology, Philosophy, Game Theory, and Spiritual Tradition." Maybe that's an Easter egg.

AI submissions, soon AI reviewers, and shortly after only AI readers.

The guy's name is "nosloP" spelled backwards. Maybe spelled normally it's supposed to signify the opposite.

prometheus1992 19 minutes ago | parent

Writing is a technology that served us well for over 5000 years, but now times are a changing. Written media will cease to provide any value in the next decade i think. In person chats/Public speaking will be revered again.

rayiner 11 minutes ago | parent

Chilling.

kzrdude 3 minutes ago | parent

Speaking is a culture that has served us well for 300 000 years or so. To note, it has been used for both good and bad..

tobias2014 11 minutes ago | parent

Why would someone ruin their academic credentials and reputation (at a reputable university) like this? Maybe there was nothing to begin with? Otherwise I can't understand this.

lstodd 8 minutes ago | parent

Maybe to expose the utter uselessness of "papers".

sho_hn 5 minutes ago | parent

I'm not an academic, and I understand by osmosis that organized science has many problems related to publishing and connected mechanisms, but I have to say there's been quite a few moments in my life and career when I found the inspiration or solution I needed in a good paper.

For condensed knowledge on highly specific topics (i.e. more specific than is economical in book form) I often know nothing better.

Most recently I did sort of a self-taught crash course in ground-penetrating radar and applications, and a number of papers have been invaluable.

readthenotes1 7 minutes ago | parent

If the past 30 years have shown us anything, it's that academic credentials and reputation are very difficult to blemish.

Polson is just pushing the knob to 11 because it's louder.

We've been in the dark ages of science for so many decades...

jazzpush2 7 minutes ago | parent

Not surprising. Many academics held in high-esteem in these behavioral offshoots are nothing more than frauds to begin with. Almost every X-studies paper is equally fluff these days (see the recent frontpage CHI post) - at least these have some semblance of theory given their equations, though are still largely garbage.

runarberg 5 minutes ago | parent

More and more evidence is surfacing that suggests AI addiction is real. It may be as simple as that Nicholas Polson has developed a severe case of AI addiction.

throwaway63467 8 minutes ago | parent

I tried writing a simple 20 page paper with the latest Claude model over several weeks and that thing got ripped apart by legal and data science (for good reason), not going to try that again. And there I had all the numbers and analyses down and verified, just the writing itself by Claude was subpar.

Can’t imagine the utter garbage that Claude will produce when you give it a simple prompt and let it write thousand of pages.

Kind of makes me wonder about all that AGI talk if these models can’t even the work of a good PhD or postdoctoral student.

MattCruikshank 7 minutes ago | parent

Nicholas Polson is an anagram for Nonsocial Slop.

jawns 5 minutes ago | parent

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.