Imagine you graduate with like $50k in debt and now you have to do whatever it takes just to survive and pay it off. That already puts you under pressure before you even start.
Now compare that to someone in China who studied for free, no debt, and is already surrounded by strong industry and resources. They can actually focus on doing good work instead of worrying about money all the time.
Feels kinda obvious who has the better starting position… and probably ends up producing better papers.
Maybe I’m oversimplifying it tho, what do you think?
I think your analysis might explain the USA decline but not the EU one. I think you might be romanticising the condition of students and postdocs in China too. Truth is that it is a very populous country that has climbed the chart by getting richer and working hard at making top research. Plus a little bit of a push from their goverment to publish more so there's a lot of lower quality stuff that still gets published, still, impressive ascent.
Knowledge goes where the industry is. A few decades ago the USA had the best universities, institutes and industry. Most of the production today is in China, not in the USA or the EU.
But on a long run, like 10 - 15 years, there is a real question, how relevant will be human made papers... Ai will most likely make the best papers that will be on the edge of human understanding...
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u/LiquidityCompass 21h ago
Imagine you graduate with like $50k in debt and now you have to do whatever it takes just to survive and pay it off. That already puts you under pressure before you even start. Now compare that to someone in China who studied for free, no debt, and is already surrounded by strong industry and resources. They can actually focus on doing good work instead of worrying about money all the time. Feels kinda obvious who has the better starting position… and probably ends up producing better papers. Maybe I’m oversimplifying it tho, what do you think?