Don't miss the punch line, which is at the very bottom: "Permission to copy: You may share copies of this story with anyone who might enjoy thinking about its implications in academia."
So this article is really about churning out useless research in academia, where merit is measured by how many publications you have rather than by what actual benefit the research has.
Or by trying to use measures like student evaluations, avg. grade, etc. as a measure of professor quality. It's always awkward to apply a bureaucracy to something as 'pure' as education and research.
So this article is really about churning out useless research in academia, where merit is measured by how many publications you have rather than by what actual benefit the research has.