This has the merit of wasting not only time, but money also. Symposium is a seasonal game. Every year, in the spring and autumn, the great scientific migrations begin. The scientists can be seen like a flock of birds settling on Vienna or Tokyo or San Francisco, sometimes in small groups, sometimes in enormous clouds of several thousand at a time. Their shrill cries can be heard reverberating through meeting halls and hotel lounges.
Nobody really knows.
Certainly no new scientific information is ever given out at these international meetings. The papers read at the formal proceedings are never anything more than short summaries of previously published work. Indeed, it has been suggested that the only reason papers are read at all is to satisfy donors of travel grants and income tax authorities. With any kind of luck, a conscientious scientist can retire from all useful work around the age of forty and still convince himself, by the use of the techniques outlined above, that he is leading a busy and useful life. Indeed, if he wishes for material success he'd probably be better advised to do so than to devote himself to the very chancy business of experimentation.