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From: bwk@mbunix.mitre.org (Barry W. Kort)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Minsky's Record
Summary: Teaching is a higher achievement than documentation.
Keywords: Publication, Knowledge Diffusion
Message-ID: <44074@linus.UUCP>
Date: 29 Jan 89 00:22:47 GMT
References: <1576@tank.uchicago.edu>
Sender: news@linus.UUCP
Reply-To: bwk@mbunix.mitre.org (Barry Kort)
Organization: Zenophobics, Lesser Lights, PA
Lines: 26

I was distressed to see the recent postings on this newsgroup
disparaging Minsky for insufficient publications.

First, I would like to quote a brief passage from _The Tomorrow
Makers_ by Grant Fjermedal, from his interview with Gerald
Jay Sussman:

	"I think Minsky has got a good chance of having influenced more
	people than almost anybody I know in the computer world.  Just
	take the number of heads of departments of computer science that
	are Minsky's students."  [p. 78]

Second, I would like to point out that early in my career, I wrote
extensively, noting that my superiors were grading me on my
publication record.  I later discovered that almost no one was
reading anything I wrote.  Since then, I have scaled back my
writing in favor of more one-on-one interactions which appear
to be a more effective form of communication.

Perhaps Minsky, too, has discovered more effective ways of
disseminating knowledge than by burying his ideas in pounds
of little-read papers.  Creating brilliant minds would seem
to be a greater achievement than creating brilliant documentation.
(Ask any software engineer.)

--Barry Kort