The Howard Wainer story.

On of the fun parts is this story from his days as an assistant professor:

Soon after I [Wainer] arrived, a parade of students and faculty came to my door asking for help. . . . It wasn’t long before every spare minute was used up doing analyses for others. I felt useful, but a bit overwhelmed. About mid-year I was back in Princeton having lunch with Harold [Gulliksen], and when he asked about my research, I grimaced and told him that there was no time. He asked what was taking it all up, and I explained. His advice was sage and practical. He told me that I should remember that my goal was not to help the students get their projects done, but rather help them learn something. He suggested a 4-step solution:

1. Ask all who come for a consultation to prepare first a one-paragraph description of their problem and give it to me a day or two in advance, so I might be able to think about it (this alone cut back on the line by 30-50%).

2. Prepare an annotated bibliography.

3. Check off the appropriate reading on the bibliography and give that to the student.

4. Only if I didn’t know an appropriate reading should I meet face-to-face with the student.

I [Wainer] followed this advice and found that, once students realized that they would have to do something themselves, the torrent of help-seekers shrank to a trickle.

But the “prepare an annotated bibliography” step seems like a lot of work! How did he find the time to do that?