davidbau.com

Credibility, not Capability

The most important thing we build in technology and academia is not capability, but credibility. It does not matter how fast we calculate, how smart we are, or the brilliance of the products or papers we make, if we cannot answer the question "Why should anybody believe anything we say?"

In these turbulent times, both in AI and in politics, my main message to my fellow technologists and academics is: credibility is all we have.

In our daily work we are focused on building our capabilities, building new research methods, new software, new computers; creating new research programs, raising money, giving talks, teaching students, writing papers. But after we have built our field-beating performance benchmarks, our trillion-dollar valuation, our Nobel-prize-winning staff, our high-impact factor H-index market-share power, we can lose sight of the fact that all this work in building capabilities arises from our credibility. It all comes from our ability to attract the best minds, to perceive the truth, nurture creativity, build collaborations, and speak about our ideas. All our capabilities stem from credibility above all.

Yet credibility can be destroyed in an instant. And once our credibility is gone, our capabilities will be destroyed as well. It just takes a few misplaced words to make it obvious that our opinions can be bought for a dollar, that our principles shrink in the face of adversity. As soon as it becomes clear that we have no independence of thought, no claim on the clarity of truth, then why should anybody believe anything we say? Why should any student study with us? Why should any engineer work for our firm? Why should any customer, donor, or collaborator give us their trust?

Credibility is our only source of power. Once it is gone, we destroy our entire enterprise. Capabilities, on their own, are an illusion, without credibility.

We must not piss away our credibility. Credibility is all we have.

Update: Freedom Can be Smothered by a Culture of Fear

Damien Teney asks on twitter, "Nice piece but I was hoping for more actionable takeaways 🙂 ... How do we build/maintain this credibility?"

So here is some more specific advice on building and maintaining credibility for academics. (The advice is pretty different for industry folks.)

Our special power as academics comes from the nature of our job and how it is different from the job of our industry peers—unlike industry, the role of academia is to transform freedom into purpose—some thoughts here.

To maintain our credibility, we must jealously guard our freedom. Fortunately, freedom is not expensive. We must recognize that our superpower as academics is that nobody is in it for the money! So we must fortify ourselves against the pressures of the dollar and the pressures of politics.

Some brief advice about what it means to preserve our freedom as academics:

1. Meet the obligation of asking the terrifying questions. Confront what must be asked, even when taboo.
2. Be meticulous with the truth. Do not alter teaching or research under monetary or political pressure.
3. Clarify the desirable, optimistic path, and do not yield to a fearful monoculture. Celebrate and elevate diverse perspectives.

Maybe the first two are obvious, but I think the last bit of advice is every bit as important, maybe the most important, because one of the ways of losing freedom is to allow it to be smothered by a culture of fear. Here is a talk I gave, in happier times, about how such values make academia great.

Posted by David at April 13, 2025 10:03 AM