| I TAed for this course. That's why I'm so mad. I have a personal stake in this game and you're talking out of your ass. I ain't asking them to invent math any more than I ask a painter to invent painting, or a writer to invent writing. Do they have solutions guides? I'm not asking anyone to invent math. I'm asking them to work through the solutions and attempt to find a proof themselves. A _proof_. Not a solution. Christ. Reading only solutions for proof-based mathematics misses the entire point of writing proofs. It's learning how to write. Do essay based courses have solution guides? Does your English course have a solution guide for the essay? How do you get better at writing? You read the written word. You read examples. Just like the examples Jeff works out tirelessly in every single chapter for you. Then you're expected to do it yourself. Read the actual damn exercises in the book instead of talking out of your ass from the comment section. Each question requires at least a couple paragraphs of articulation. Some require multiple pages - single spaced. Are you asking Jeff to provide a 5000 page solution guide for these problems? Some of these are even research problems, writing all the solutions to them would likely award Jeff a Turing Award. Just like writing, there's a lot of other resources and books to read out there. Plenty of things to reference and places to find inspiration in. But it has to be on your own. You can't just pull out "Great Gatsby Essay Solutions Guide" and use it to write your essay. I don't care if that's "just how you learn". Christ. I'm so angry because every one wants to teach every subject like it's fucking Calc 1. And that's plain idiocy. The entire value I got out of this course in undergrad was technical writing. Learning how to actually "write" a proof, and not just nonsensically sling notation at a poor soul. Comparing Jeff's writing with mine, seeing where I tripped up, and trying again. When I TA-ed for the course, I had to fail so many students who "had the right solution" and they did. They had the perfect answer, that they copied from the fuck next door and couldn't write about to save their life. The alegbra was exquisite, the typesetting immaculate, the writing and logic completely incomprehensible. 1/5 points. Every time. Most of them couldn't compose a single full sentence. Fuck the solutions. And fuck your mentality. |
> The entire value I got out of this course in undergrad was technical writing. Learning how to actually "write" a proof, and not just nonsensically sling notation at a poor soul. Comparing Jeff's writing with mine, seeing where I tripped up, and trying again.
Specifically:
> Comparing Jeff's writing with mine, seeing where I tripped up, and trying again.
Hey, you get it! You spent an entire screen trying to pretend that having model solutions is wrong and useless and pointless, but you made a slip up and admitted you've known the value all along! Oopsie.
But yeah, I understand your point (kind of), but you yourself seem to find value in comparing your solutions with the 'correct' ones — not only the contents, but the formulation as well. Do you find it so hard that others, maybe some that aren't from Illinois at all and just like the book, would do the same?