Clément Canonne @ccanonne.github.io · May 17 For those who argue about the benefits and role of the #arXiv, let me provide two examples, and ask you this: do you want to live in a world where, to know a key result or idea, you needed to be part of the lucky few at the right conference dinner? Example: cstheory.stackexchange.com/q/28039/13319
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This is one of the reasons I support preprints especially in outbreak science. It's not that preliminary estimates and data don't get shared otherwise. It's that they get shared on conference calls, and private emails, and "Hey Eric, thought you'd be interested in..."
The second? Karp, Pippenger, and Sipser (1985). A time-randomness tradeoff. Cited everywhere, existing nowhere. So yes, I appreciate @arxiv.bsky.social . It is far from perfect, but "private communications" and "unpublished ideas with no written form known except to a small clique" sound way worse.