[CoastalCoder]

It's been a long time, but IIRC I recognized that my understanding of the term was vague but that all interpretations boiled down to, if I wasn't ready now I never would be.

I'm not claiming that my response was entirely rational or measured. I'm not blaming the professor, and I'm not justifying my own reaction. I was just saying what my reaction was, in case it shows a pattern of student experiences that's worth addressing.

[robocat]

If you have reasonable people skills, you may well have correctly inferred what the lecturer was communicating: overly questioning the words can be damaging. As I have matured, I have learnt better to trust my intuitive reading of what someone says, especially when I detect that the meaning of their words is divergent from what I believe they think beneath the surface.

Stubbornness, tenacity and self-belief are useful skills for success - perhaps you gave up too quickly? Unfortunately, soft skills are very rarely taught well. We all rely upon our subconscious learning and a good amount of luck to gain necessary skills, and those skills are often learnt by osmosis while very young. I also think the meta-skill of being able to teach yourself soft skills is not common either and it - although we can make an effort to improve that meta-skill even though it is somewhat self-referential.