On the marketplace of ideas.
Arvind Narayanan had an interesting post on the marketplace of ideas. He argued for using preprints to get ideas out there, and thinking about projects as the unit for planning research. Projects should be several years long, yield multiple papers, and build upon themselves.
I like the post, and think preprints are great, especially when thinking about slow journal review cycles. I would just say that we need to keep clear heads about preprints. They’re markers, discussion starters, works-in-progress, etc. Peer review still needs to be part of the discussion, to take those ideas and validate the scientific contribution, rigor, etc. Plenty of room for all of the above in Prof. Narayanan’s marketplace.