How to deal with an uncommunicative advisor? So I have an advisor who seems to be kind of peculiar. He is quite famous in his field and has good reputation.

However, his way of working with students is more like waiting for him to come up with ideas for students. And since he has "good taste", he is always aiming for big goals which makes it take a lot longer to formulate any concrete project.

Research ideas from students are usually discarded. It's been over a year and I still don't have a research project. Also, for papers that he thinks aren't that important, he will ask his student to write it up and rarely take his time to read the paper or provide suggestions for revising which means that students have to wait a long time to get anything published.

The other funny thing is that he almost never replies back to his students' emails and rarely helps his students in finding postdoc positions. How do I work with this kind of advisor and is it a good idea to switch advisors?
If the advisor is well respected externally in her field and active (what is her publication/conference record in the last 5 years?) and relatively supportive in other ways (interesting conversations about research topics, is available in person when students drop, has funding) and if she has a group of supported students/postdocs in her group; then my advice is to decide whether your personality allows you (cheerfully or pretend-cheerfully) to take on some leadership roles in self-mentoring.


start a weekly or bi-weekly group meeting, journal club, or similar where also people in the group talk about what they are doing. (try to arrange that it is convenient time (check his class schedule/university meetings) but do the meetings even the weeks he cannot show. 
schedule a 20-30 minute meeting with him once every week or two regularly to discuss progress, don't count on him to set it up. Make sure to prepare something (at the beginning) that isn't asking for help so much as showing off things you find interesting or have accomplished that week. 


The point is to avoid appearing as if you need hand-holding, but to get some interactions going which are positive and useful for yourself to succeed. (And show of how much of a self-starter you are).

The delay in publishing papers - if there are senior co-authors, also look to them. 

On the other hand -  choose another advisor
Sometimes email gets buried, but a consistent 'never replying or acknowledging an email from student(colleagues,department admin)'  gives me the heebie-jeebies. We have had several faculty in my department over the years who had that trait and in their particular cases it never made any sense except as some stupid passive-agressive issue. So, on the basis of that trait alone, I'd suggest finding someone else who is more excited about their work and respectful of other's time and energy.