Is it now time to disintermediate the editorial process? &, if so, for how long has this been true?…

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In my experience:

• About one editor in twenty is a true genius.

• About one editor in ten is useful.

• About thirteen editors in twenty cause delays and extra work, while having no net effect on the quality of what is ultimately published—their good suggestions are counterbalanced by the bad requirements they impose.

• About three editors in twenty are harmful—about as harmful as the good editors are useful.

• And about one editor in twenty wants to make the piece theirs, or their bosses’, and it would have been better and easier for everyone if they had just written the peace from the beginning. (Save, perhaps, for the money they pay you to have your name in the “author” slot rather than theirs.

It appears that Noah Smith agrees with me—and not as a lurker in email either:

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