[D] Competitiveness in ML research

I've been diving deep into the world of machine learning research, and I'm genuinely baffled: how on Earth do some researchers seem to pump out paper after paper? I mean, there's only 24 hours in a day, right?

Are academic minions (i.e. PhD students) doing all the heavy lifting? Or maybe some highly efficient workflows I'm not privy to?

On a more serious note, I would like a career in ML, and the sheer volume and pace of these publications …

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