Big Shot Index

In the early days of machine learning, people were happy with heuristic and informal methods. Given the demand nowadays for rigorously principled approaches to machine learning, we have developed the following rigorously based index for determining big-shot status.

The BSI (or Big Shot Index) is a function of several variables:

Total number of NIPS papers you are an author on
Total number of NIPS papers you are sole author on
Total number of NIPS papers you are an author on and your name appears in the acknowledgement sections
Total number of NIPS talks given
Age
Number of high level industrial advisory boards you are on
Average annual grant income
Number of times you have been on the NIPS program committee
Number of dedicated slots on the NIPS program committee for your recently graduated students
Average number of square meters of the condominium you rent in Whistler
Average price of air ticket to attend the conference
Age of your laptop
Size of crowd that follows you to viewing posters
Total number of forewords and blurbs you have been asked to write
Number of editorial boards you are on
Number of lines of code you have written in the last year
Fraction of words you actually wrote in all papers in the last year with you listed as an author
Average cost of meal you eat at the conference
Number of workshops you organise in a year
Number of workshops you organise in a year but do not attend
Number of times being NIPS program chair
Your picture comes up high on Google Image search when people search your first name (strict search!)
Number of direct reports
Number of indirect reports
Number of mutual admiration clubs (scientific societies) you are member of

Score

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Grades of Big-Shotness

There are three classes of big-shotness. When no particular class is mentioned, platinum grade is usually implied – platinum big-shots are the real big shots. The following thresholds have been approved by the JMLG board:

ClassThreshold
Platinum  *****150
Gold ****60
Silver ***30

World Record

To best knowledge of the editors, the highest scoring big-shot has a score of 306.5. For legal reasons, we cannot name the individual. We would be happy to update this record if any reader can provide credible evidence.