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People who go on to discover great things don't learn from the professors. Let's take math as an example. One creates advances in mathematics by sitting with th
by brentr 18y ago
People who go on to discover great things don't learn from the professors. Let's take math as an example. One creates advances in mathematics by sitting with the literature, a pencil, and a pad. Every great idea comes only after thousands of failed starts.
- silencio 18y agoThat is also true. But sometimes you need a mentor of sorts to help you when you need it, and some professors can do that well.
- brentr 18y agoAt this juncture, a professor stops being a professor and becomes a colleague. EDIT: What I am trying to say is that a professor/student relationship is one of inequality. When the relationship moves beyond only one side influencing the course of discussion/discovery, then a relationship of equals is established, albeit a relation of equals where one side is more equal than the other (and that relationship may swap over the course of time).
- pchristensen 18y agoI like that phrasing. And most bright kids never get a "colleague" like that. I just finished reading Lockhart's Lament, and it made me sad that even though I was one of the best students in my IB program in high school, then got a BS in CS, I had to learn from the internet 10 years later that math is a journey of creative discussion.
- brentr 18y agoThe first time through a Bachelor's program I made the same mistake. I wanted so much to get out of school and head into the business world. The result was a finance degree and an intense urge to go back to school to pursue math and computer science. Now I am going back to pursue those two at Bowling Green, and I will not make the same mistake again.