One of the least attractive features of life in the Academy is the emphasis on credentials and the constant comparisons that go on between the degreed and the nondegreed, between the elitely educated and the products of lesser institutions, between those who teach and those who publish It's easy to measure productivity by the number of ball bearings produced or the number of burgers flipped, when it comes to evaluating qualities of mind, it's a murkier business "Smart" becomes a kind of essential signifier "It's a smart book" means it's a book that will win the biggest prize in the field.