Welcome to the Bravenet community!
You've made some great posts, so far; keep up the great work!
Technology may have gone so far that communication and decision making is now within at the tip of our finger, but we still can not get away with papers, including pre-conceived ideas based on papers. And just as not everything true is worth writing, not all that is written and perceived helpful will actually be useful.
A lot of things were decided based on merits vouched by "papers" and then in the end, decision turned out as another lesson to learn from. When are we going to learn? In choosing between qualified candidates, selection should go beyond what the candidate is capable to do based on "papers" he can present. Not everyone who has that paper can really do what is vouched by that paper and not having that paper does not mean one can not do better.