Beware the Academic Vanity Honeypot

Virginia Heffernan:

A few weeks ago, I got a direct message on Twitter from one Larry Summers. Yes, the Larry Summers, if that nasty little aquafresh checkmark beside @LHSummers was to be believed.

Larry Summers of Harvard. Larry Summers of the World Bank. Larry Summers of the Treasury Department, for the love of god. Secretary Summers, President Summers. Receiver of medals for epochal contributions to macroeconomics, public finance, labor—not to mention his rare insight into women’s gender-borne intellectual shortcomings.

Yes sirree, Lawrence Henry Summers was just casually DM’ing me, because, well, he’d read an article of mine and found it astute. And now Larry Summers wanted feedback from me on an article of his.