I have recently listened to a number of talks given by excellent senior scientists. Their being excellent can be concluded from the prizes they – recently – got and from their – recent -  membership of exclusive societies.

A number of them fall in the trap of feeling the necessity of proving that they are smart and of proving that their field is much more important than the research subjects pursued by their audience.

Let me first put a two simple facts that are often overlooked:

1. Every scientist can always give a much longer presentation than the allotted time
2. Every scientist can give a mathematically sound presentation that nobody in the audience will understand.

So why do these superb scientists keep on saying things like “I could give a whole talk on just this part, but here I will have to limit myself to … “, or when they start, their first sentence is “I could give a much longer talk than the prescribed x minutes? The implication of what they state is: “I am much more important than the other speakers, and I do not understand why I am not invited to talk for hours, you dummies.”

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