I can&#x27;t recall the last paper that I had to fluff up to fill all 10 or 12 pages; nor do I remember any colleagues doing anything like that. In truth, every paper halves in size between the first good draft and the submission. Writing a good paper can take a month, and involve writing dozens of drafts (I wrote a post about this at <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pavpanchekha.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;paper-section-stats.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pavpanchekha.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;paper-section-stats.html</a>).<p>Now, you might say that the paper should contain less content. But what do you want to chuck? The technical sections are the whole point of the paper, and they&#x27;re already squeezed to fit. Evaluation? But that only <i>hurts</i> the causes in this article. And the introduction, background, overview, and related work sections are frequently described by non-specialists as the most useful parts of a paper.<p>Here&#x27;s a paper I&#x27;m very proud of: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;herbie.uwplse.org&#x2F;pldi15.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;herbie.uwplse.org&#x2F;pldi15.html</a><p>What should I have cut?