Quote:
Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop
I would rather that schools not try to fire idiots, because I don't trust schools to make that decision well, and worry that they will use it as a pretext. If a school can't figure out how to avoid giving tenure to an idiot, it seems unlikely that they will exercise discretion in firing idiots any better.
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I think every school tries to avoid hiring idiots in the first place. There is a process, by which a department of people who have some idea of what they are doing interviews candidates who have something to say for themselves. This process is designed to weed out idiots, and perhaps even, at some schools, to establish standards reasonably far above idiocy.
Like all processes, it is far from perfect, and mistakes are made. When a mistake is made, you have to fire someone. Hopefully that is before giving them tenure, but, certainly, sometimes idiots get tenure for various reasons (for example, Harvard regularly gives conservatives tenure because they want to have some, even if their work is sub-par).
But we all fire idiots on occasion, as imperfect as we may be. The hard part is not firing idiots. When you make a mistake and hire an idiot, it's usually pretty easy and a bit of a relief to get rid of them. The problem is when you have to fire someone who is not an idiot, for some reason wholly extrinsic to them (like a downturn in the economy or a decision you need different expertise). Firing idiots is, and ought to be, relatively easy.
