Proofs and Prompts

Notes from the common room

What do you do with an asshole?

Aaron Stump, Professor of Computer Science at Boston College. Cross-posted at his blog.

Here’s a thought experiment. Imagine that a very senior colleague, regarded as near the top of his field, made it his business to find out what young researchers were working on, and then solve their problems. Imagine, too, that he gave no credit to them for the efforts they had made so far, and furthermore was so disrespectful as not even to publish the work, but just post it on his blog. And he does this repeatedly, despite being urged in terms both polite and strident, from many parties, to stop.

Do you know what we would call that person? An asshole.

What would we do about such a person? Well, since no laws are being broken or anything like that, we would resort to a time-honored social response: we would just shun that person. They wouldn’t get invited anywhere, no one would talk to them, etc. It could get a little ugly, if some people still wanted to be friends with that person, but, shunning is pretty serious. And behavior like that totally deserves it.

Received 30 October 2026.

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4 responses to “What do you do with an asshole?”

  1. Bogdan Grechuk Avatar
    Bogdan Grechuk

    I would use asshole. I would encourage “young researchers that were working on” the problem to rewrite asshole’s solution in their way, give proper credit to all work asshole used, including their own work, and submit for publication, without including asshole as a co-author (instead, include a short asshole statement at the end of the paper acknowledging how asshole’s ideas were used). I would encourage the community to give credit to authors of such papers, not to asshole. I would encourage people to understand the most brilliant of asshole’s ideas and apply them to other problems. As a result, asshole work will be used to facilitate progress and enrich understanding.

    Reply
  2. . Avatar
    .

    You forgot to pay 200USD per month

    Reply
  3. John Mitchell Avatar
    John Mitchell

    To make the thought experiment a bit more faithful to the real world, imagine that people might make a lot of money by buying stock in the asshole, and that a few can make ocean liners full of money by working for the asshole.

    Not all answers to “What would you do?” are noble.

    Reply
  4. Bogdan Grechuk Avatar
    Bogdan Grechuk

    “You forgot to pay 200USD per month” – Indeed, I forgot to mention that, while all proof asshole posted on his blog are of course can be read for free, he also offers a deal to work on YOUR PROBLEMS for 200USD per month. It is up to your whether to accept the deal.

    Reply

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