The most brutal referee quote ever: ornate waterfall prose, no plumber called

KarlMuth · x · 2026-09-17

The author shares the sharpest peer-review critique he's ever read (paraphrased, from a UChicago referee): the paper was like a lovely, ornate description of a waterfall while readers wondered page after page whether anyone had called a plumber who knew how to fix it — mocking beautiful prose that fails to solve the actual problem.

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