I just finished up as one of Jim Heckman's RAs. Given his reputation, I thought that I would share my experience.
I knew Heckman's reputation going into the job. So I braced myself for a low quality of life for a while in exchange for the well documented success of many of his alums. And he didn't disappoint. But many of the things that make him a tough boss are also the things that make him such a great economist. That, and his widespread reputation, means to me that any of his former RAs who gripe have nobody to blame but themselves. We all know what are are getting into.
Heckman divides his RAs into pretty neat compartments. One RA, for example, is charged with surfing the literature to make sure that he is being appropriately cited. My job was to help Heckman with his prolific trolling on EJMR. I helped craft his troll posts. We also talked each night when I was to bring him the slate of the day's posts to decide which we would good and which we would no good.
Once, Heckman had the idea for a fake newspaper article that ended with a B+ in real analysis joke. I wrote it up as a male professor being accused of sexually harassing a female communications student. At 3 A.M., my phone rings. It is Heckman. He calls me an idiot, says that I am trying to ruin the troll, and he fires me. The next morning, however, he calls me and asks for an update on a lesser project (a post about a job market candidate writing a fake letter to a department that just made him an offer). So I am not fired, but another RA gets the task of writing the troll up as a lesbian relationship between an econ professor and one of her students.
Another time, we are working on a troll where we compare economics subfields to various adult film genres. I suggest that econometric theory is like BDSM. Heckman's glare lowers the temperature in the room by 20 degrees. But for Lucas being in the room, he was also working on that project, Heckman would have been ripped me a new one. I learn right there that econometric theory is never to be the butt of an EJMR joke.
A few weeks ago, I am the best man in a wedding. My phone keeps ringing, I know it is Heckman. When I call him back, he is furious. A troll he really liked, a parody of microaggressions in economics, is just not gaining any traction. He wants me to bump it. I am shocked. While participating as OP in a lively discussion is fine, Heckman never bumps his own threads gratuitously. In fact I have heard him refer to doing that as Steve type bulls**t'' in reference to his belief that Steve Levitt (who writes a lot of aspie humor trolls on EJMR) bumps his own threads in order to push up the goods that they get. When I mention my hesitation, I am fired. This time it is for real.
I don't regret my time with Heckman. I learned a lot about trolling on EJMR. I am already getting 15-20 goods on some of my trolls. I will never be Heckman, all he does is write 100+ good trolls. But someday, I might be able to hit triple digits all on my own.