4 ms·

My experience in learning math is that the textbooks try to provide what is right. And what is right typically becomes excessively verbose to the point that the

My experience in learning math is that the textbooks try to provide what is right. And what is right typically becomes excessively verbose to the point that the main idea gets lost in the rightness. This is what in person coaching gets you. You get the intuition of the idea, ignoring all the nitty gritty and only when you have a firm grasp of the intuition do you explore what this intuition also means for different cases and hence the nitty gritties. Having experienced this myself many times over, I now know exactly what to look for in a book when I am self learning. I don't know how this skill is to be taught but if remote learning was to succeed, different methods of learning needs to be outlined and taught to the students and get them to learn to select one appropriate for their learning styles and subject.

jmiserez 6y ago
The issue is that those are usually two separate books. Students need intuition and a broader overview, but experienced professionals usually want rigor, unambiguity and completeness. In my experience there are actually very few books that do both, and I've also had professors that don't seem to find it too important to convey intuition (or even think it's counterproductive as intuition breaks down at some point).
swiley 6y ago
IMO: as long as they’re organized well verbosity is good. Ever tried to read a theology book? They’re just walls of text, no nice theorem: and def: to guide you; that’s when verbosity makes things hard. On the other hand very concise books that force you to think in order to pull meaning out of them can be a lot of fun if you have the time. Also (another opinion) you get intuition doing practice problems and playing with the idea(s), it’s almost impossible to get intuition just by reading.
- throwaway_pdp09 6y ago
  When I meet verbosity in non-fiction books I get suspicious that it's there to conceal something, not reveal.

jmiserez 6y ago

The issue is that those are usually two separate books. Students need intuition and a broader overview, but experienced professionals usually want rigor, unambiguity and completeness. In my experience there are actually very few books that do both, and I've also had professors that don't seem to find it too important to convey intuition (or even think it's counterproductive as intuition breaks down at some point).

swiley 6y ago

IMO: as long as they’re organized well verbosity is good. Ever tried to read a theology book? They’re just walls of text, no nice theorem: and def: to guide you; that’s when verbosity makes things hard. On the other hand very concise books that force you to think in order to pull meaning out of them can be a lot of fun if you have the time. Also (another opinion) you get intuition doing practice problems and playing with the idea(s), it’s almost impossible to get intuition just by reading.

throwaway_pdp09 6y ago
When I meet verbosity in non-fiction books I get suspicious that it's there to conceal something, not reveal.