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I can confirm the opposite is true. My most favorite subject was taught by a teacher I hated (psychology of game-design). I passed with a 75% mark and I felt as

I can confirm the opposite is true. My most favorite subject was taught by a teacher I hated (psychology of game-design). I passed with a 75% mark and I felt ashamed since I was actively trying to get a 55% (i.e. barely passing). Edit: For downvoters, I'd like you to email me. I'd like to have the feedback why this isn't an interesting observation to make (that hating a teacher may produce opposite results).

darkerside 8y ago
Love and hate aren't opposites.
- sethammons 8y ago
  Can you expand on that? I think they are almost always grouped as opposites. Sharp and dull, Light and dark, Big and small, Love and hate. You could try for apathy as the opposite of love or of hate, but that is like saying gray is the opposite of white or black - it is just something in the middle. I've tried to define love and hate in similar terms, minding what I think is their opposite nature. Self sacrifice to help another person is love, self sacrifice to hurt another person is hate. I think it works.
  - empath75 8y ago
    They’re feelings, not actions. You can love and hate something and someone at the same time (see Apple and Star Wars fandom), but it’s quite hard to love or hate something and feel apathetic about it at the same time.
    - sethammons 8y ago
      Is that different than the following?: big and small are just relative descriptions. Something can be both big and small, consider the moon (big to us, small to the sun), but it is hard to describe somethings size while not thinking/comparing/considering about it. Light and dark can be considered emotions to. You can harbor light and dark thoughts at the same time on the same subject. Light and dark are still opposites, like big and small. I don't find the argument compelling yet that love and hate are not opposites. If indifference is the opposite of love, it is also the opposite of hate. That would make love and hate the same or close. I don't buy it. I would consider negative and positive to be opposite, and zero to be niether. Zero is apathy/indifference.
      - FakeComments 8y ago
        You can’t be big and small to something at the same time the way you can love and hate something at the same time. Your point about 0 is resonable, but it’s more of a U shape. Both are intense feelings that will stimulate arousal. In practice, it’s easier to move from love to hate and back to love than it is to move either to apathy — and cycling between them doesn’t involve apathy at all. And then we have things like disgust, which I would say is more dissimilar to love than hate.
  - tchaffee 8y ago
    The opposite of love isn't hate. The opposite of love is indifference. Relationships can survive hate and return to love. When they just stop caring, the relationship is over. Much like depression is not sadness. Sadness is meaningful. Depression is the dullness of absolutely nothing having meaning anymore.
    - seppin 8y ago
      I'd make an exception for contempt. Once you have contempt for another human being, it's hard to recover that.
  - darkerside 8y ago
    Of course they can be considered opposites, along a certain axis. It all depends what you think is the most relevant axis for comparison. In this case, I think emotions lead to memory leads to learning. It's more important to care about the instructor and the material than it is to feel positive about it. To purposefully score low, you need to master the material enough to prevent yourself from being right by accident.
m0llusk 8y ago
Perhaps it is the emotional reaction which may spark learning. Many of my strongest lessons have been taught to me by people I don't along with and thoroughly loathe. This is the basis of one of the fundamental lessons I tell all serious students and acolytes: As much as you need mentors you need to have an enemy. Someone who provides dramatic contrast and direct competition can teach important lessons that cannot be learned any other way.
- mettamage 8y ago
  Could you give an example? This particular teacher was a dictator and didn't allow for any autonomy and acted like the class material was much more difficult than it actually was. Note: we were master students and other classes that didn't do dictatorial handholding were much better. I had studied 2 bachelors and 0.5 masters up to this point. Why do I then need to come to a lecture on how to learn JavaScript or otherwise I'd fail the class for not coming? I was more knowledgeable than what the guest speaker was teaching! (variables, loops, if-statements, functions) Teachers that say: it's on you to come to the lecture and if you fail the class because you never show up that's on you, are much more my style.

darkerside 8y ago

Love and hate aren't opposites.

sethammons 8y ago
Can you expand on that? I think they are almost always grouped as opposites. Sharp and dull, Light and dark, Big and small, Love and hate. You could try for apathy as the opposite of love or of hate, but that is like saying gray is the opposite of white or black - it is just something in the middle. I've tried to define love and hate in similar terms, minding what I think is their opposite nature. Self sacrifice to help another person is love, self sacrifice to hurt another person is hate. I think it works.
- empath75 8y ago
  They’re feelings, not actions. You can love and hate something and someone at the same time (see Apple and Star Wars fandom), but it’s quite hard to love or hate something and feel apathetic about it at the same time.
  - sethammons 8y ago
    Is that different than the following?: big and small are just relative descriptions. Something can be both big and small, consider the moon (big to us, small to the sun), but it is hard to describe somethings size while not thinking/comparing/considering about it. Light and dark can be considered emotions to. You can harbor light and dark thoughts at the same time on the same subject. Light and dark are still opposites, like big and small. I don't find the argument compelling yet that love and hate are not opposites. If indifference is the opposite of love, it is also the opposite of hate. That would make love and hate the same or close. I don't buy it. I would consider negative and positive to be opposite, and zero to be niether. Zero is apathy/indifference.
    - FakeComments 8y ago
      You can’t be big and small to something at the same time the way you can love and hate something at the same time. Your point about 0 is resonable, but it’s more of a U shape. Both are intense feelings that will stimulate arousal. In practice, it’s easier to move from love to hate and back to love than it is to move either to apathy — and cycling between them doesn’t involve apathy at all. And then we have things like disgust, which I would say is more dissimilar to love than hate.
- tchaffee 8y ago
  The opposite of love isn't hate. The opposite of love is indifference. Relationships can survive hate and return to love. When they just stop caring, the relationship is over. Much like depression is not sadness. Sadness is meaningful. Depression is the dullness of absolutely nothing having meaning anymore.
  - seppin 8y ago
    I'd make an exception for contempt. Once you have contempt for another human being, it's hard to recover that.
- darkerside 8y ago
  Of course they can be considered opposites, along a certain axis. It all depends what you think is the most relevant axis for comparison. In this case, I think emotions lead to memory leads to learning. It's more important to care about the instructor and the material than it is to feel positive about it. To purposefully score low, you need to master the material enough to prevent yourself from being right by accident.

m0llusk 8y ago

Perhaps it is the emotional reaction which may spark learning. Many of my strongest lessons have been taught to me by people I don't along with and thoroughly loathe. This is the basis of one of the fundamental lessons I tell all serious students and acolytes: As much as you need mentors you need to have an enemy. Someone who provides dramatic contrast and direct competition can teach important lessons that cannot be learned any other way.

mettamage 8y ago
Could you give an example? This particular teacher was a dictator and didn't allow for any autonomy and acted like the class material was much more difficult than it actually was. Note: we were master students and other classes that didn't do dictatorial handholding were much better. I had studied 2 bachelors and 0.5 masters up to this point. Why do I then need to come to a lecture on how to learn JavaScript or otherwise I'd fail the class for not coming? I was more knowledgeable than what the guest speaker was teaching! (variables, loops, if-statements, functions) Teachers that say: it's on you to come to the lecture and if you fail the class because you never show up that's on you, are much more my style.