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by sopooneo
4144 days ago
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In general, I have been horrified by the book recommendations about various fields, by experts in those fields. I used to teach, and the masters of the craft, folks who could silence a room with a glance, and inspired kids to harder work than they knew possible, used to recommend books that seemed embarrassingly trite. I attribute it to the fact that they were natural experts, and not necessarily book lovers. It would be like asking a sparrow for their favorite work on the dynamics of flight. |
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I agree that professors often choose books poorly, but disagree with the idea of a "natural expert." No human is born with a mathematical understanding of flight dynamics. There may be people who grasp it relatively quickly, although in my experience that's usually because they're relatively quick learners in general, and because they're building on a very strong foundation. Yes, there are people who are just smarter than the rest of us. But there are just as many people, if not more, who put in tremendous effort to become experts at which point they may appear as naturals. (Furthermore, some may downplay these effort and cultivate this idea that they're a "natural" to impress their colleagues and students.) It's not always obvious what sacrifices they made along the way.