First, the mechanics. I am at a #medicalschool and quantity+quality generally both matter. Medical journal papers tend to be shorter (3,000) and there is a "Top 5" of sorts. The general advice I was given was 5-10 first or last authored papers a year.

So "halving" publications for me has meant a goal 3-5 publications. Of these, I have been shooting for 2-3 longer, econ style papers. I am post-tenure and in a very supportive, diverse department so figured I could do this without too much hub-bub. How has it gone?

The positives: 1. More time to sink your teeth into an idea, read, think and get into the process of it. I feel like I am learning more this way. 2. Moving away from "write this up" to think through the whole thing has made the writing more satisfying.

An illustration of #2. A few years ago, my colleagues and I had a result that the Voting Rights Act, by improving resources and opportunity, improved infant health and reduced racial disparities in infant mortality. But the pattern for adults looked different.

Rather than write the first thing up and get into into a clinical journal, we decided to chase the oddities. We ended up with a rich interesting result (which many people seem to hate, but thats a story for later): arxiv.org/abs/2510.26857

Positive #3: This strategy on net has made me far less stressed in life. I can take vacations and actually have them be vacations. I'm not worried about writing up something and submitting, getting scooped, etc. I'm worried less about status, legacy. I don't take my laptop everywhere.

The negatives: 1. You have to say "no" *a lot.* I find myself feeling really guilty doing so. 2. You don't publish as much, and so your visibility in the field, citations, awards decline. 3. People aren't reading longer papers because ::waves hands at world:: 4. Some people think its weird

And then there are things I have to figure out. Like how do I mentor trainees if the expectation is to be a senior author on papers? Does that restrict the number of trainees? Would I give them the advice to halve the # of publications? I think "no" bec so few are doing it, but that feels wrong