"We originally wrote this article in Word, but then we converted it to Latex to make it look more like science."
The link is here. It is the best analysis of zombification I have seen to date. For the pointer I thank John Chilton.
Good sentences
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“In the presence of hard data, zombie researchers1 have studied outbreaks and their dynamics using differential equation models”
I’m guessing he meant ‘In the absence of hard data’.
That trick got me an extra 5% on undergrad work.
How many candidates have not be contacted for interviews because they didn’t use that ugly Latex default font?
Many of the people I talk to in physics do automatically dismiss arxiv papers that written in Word. Of course we all realize there is plenty of crap written in LaTeX.
During undergrad, when I saw people try to write math in Word, I would laugh, and laugh, and laugh, and offer to help them learn TeX
Maybe I’m weird, but I like Word (with my macros and styles) better than Tex by a wide margin.
I took all my notes in Word. This included Real Analysis, Topology, a PhD-level Game Theory course and lots of electrical engineering comm-area courses. Mathtype and macros for equations help alot. Generally I find typing “ctrl-g, a” faster than typing “\alpha”.
Basically, if you can learn the Latex switches, you can learn the Mathtype shortcuts and then you end up typing equations faster in Word. And from years of “competitions” in the lab, anything any Latex evangelizer could do, I could do faster in Word.
The only claim that I was never able to win over the hard-core Latex users was kerning. I could never tell the difference, but that was a sticking point. It was also the least objective metric that was used in the comparisons.
“And from years of “competitions” in the lab, anything any Latex evangelizer could do, I could do faster in Word.”
I’m not sure if, “I can make something that looks really crappy faster than you can make something look good!” is really a selling point for me.
I thought that the “people who have invested time in an older, less efficient option are defending it to signal seniority/status” were the ones using harvmac…
Most people’s latex and most people’s word output both look pretty ugly to be honest. But the latter has the advantage that it can be made to look good when recycled into a book, or when printed by the journal. If your journals require the format then typing in anything else is just crazy.
As for speed, I can’t type straight latex very fast, but LyX lets you do “alt-g, a” type things very quickly, as well as typing if you know the command not the keystroke.
For those of us not in the ivory tower there should have been links to explain what Latex is. On first read I thought that they had converted their writing from Word format to plastic clothing. Which, indeed, I thought was strange.
I know, I could (and did) do a Google search. But those of us in the real world are lazy and have other things to do.
I appreciate the tags as they abstract away the looks of the text and let me focus on the content instead. Also I rarely need to leave the keyboard for the mouse.
Hey, neat, a LaTeX vs. Word thread!
I used LaTeX to great effect in writing my thesis. But I find LaTeX horrible for collaboratively authoring documents shorter than 20 pages, especially if they are not math heavy.
Word isn’t great but it certainly seems better to me in this regard.
I downloaded LaTeX just to see what it was all about. I think I’ll stick with my Word plus MathType plugin thanks.
A challenger appears:
Just use Open Office and type those equations like you would in LaTeX. Best of both worlds!
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/OOoAuthors_User_Manual/Getting_Started/Entering_a_formula
Disclaimer: I used LaTeX for my M.A., used MSWord for academic work stuff (with few equations) and am using OO for almost 2 years.
if you can learn the Latex switches, you can learn the Mathtype shortcuts and then you end up typing equations faster in Word.
Barkely, your post is missing a tag, I think.
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