4 ms·
Maybe I'm cynical (or not cynical enough) but I always tend to cast a wary eye at product marketed like this: >You don't need to read thousands of pages to le
by gms7777 13y ago
Maybe I'm cynical (or not cynical enough) but I always tend to cast a wary eye at product marketed like this:
>You don't need to read thousands of pages to learn mechanics and calculus, so why are the required textbooks so long? Textbook publishers produce such large textbooks so they can charge you $150 for each textbook. They want to get $300 from you to teach you the basics. That's not cool!
It comes off the same way as infomercials for "One health secret that doctors don't want you to know!".
- ivan_ah 13y agoI know what you mean, but in this case there is a real "cartel" thing going on. Professors decide what book will be used for the class and students have to buy it regardless of price and quality. Imagine you were a publisher and you have a captive audience of hundreds of thousands of students. Would you make a good lean book and sell it for $30, or would you make a bloated book with full-page color images and repetitive explanations? Assume in both cases, the sale is guaranteed... That's the "injustice" I'm trying to fix, but it is a bit of an uphill battle because first-year students assume that the bigger (thicker) books must be better because they have "more stuff" in them.
- gms7777 13y ago>Assume in both cases, the sale is guaranteed... That seems like an invalid assumption. The publisher doesn't choose which book the students buy, the professor does. And its not like theres a publisher with a pure monopoly on mathematics textbooks, so there is a market and choice avaialble. We can of course question whether the professors are choosing the best textbooks, but in general, unless they're trying to boost sales of their own books, they're not choosing books based on increased cost. >That's the "injustice" I'm trying to fix, but it is a bit of an uphill battle because first-year students assume that the bigger (thicker) books must be better because they have "more stuff" in them. Well, what first-year students think should be irrelevant, shouldn't it, because as you stated, the students have to buy whatever they're told. Its not to say that I think your book is bad or anything (I haven't read it, I can't comment) I just thought that I'd mention this as criticism since at least for me it automatically causes me to think of your book as a gimmick and lower quality than it probably is.
- gingham 13y agoI get where this thought comes from, but I have to say that I have this book (though I used mostly version 3) and it has been a lifesaver. I love it and highly recommend it to anyone learning first year calc at uni.