Comment by epolanski
9 hours ago
It's *supposed* to work.
In reality you get lectures from individuals that became professors because they are great at politics/research but not at teaching (very different skill).
If you even get them and not their 25 year old assistants.
And this is apparently super common even in ivy league universities as Youtube lessons have shown me over and over.
This is why it's so awesome watching David Malan teach Harvard CS50 (free YouTube videos). His presence, knowledge and overall enthusiasm for the topic are outstanding. If more of my college courses had that level, I'd have been far more engaged. When I look back, I realize that I paid a TON of money to have some professors basically "phone it in", yet expect me to basically teach myself their subject of expertise. "Build a compiler". Yes, I can (and did) learn that from a book. I imagine if I had someone truly engaging the room during those sessions, I'd have come away with FAR more appreciation. That could have even led to a different career path.
All that, and it’s still better than just reading the book on your own. :P
Be thankful when you get the 25 year old PhD students & post-docs. They care more about teaching and remember learning the material recently and are more willing to talk & help you.
I've attended courses from some of the best researchers on the planet (like Graetzel at EPFL) and you did yourself a favor if you skipped the confused ramblings and just studied on the books.
Plenty of courses taught by brilliant individuals that were just bad at teaching or borderline not prepared.
Some courses (like biochemistry) were effectively useless as de facto you had to memorize 600 pages of Lehninger's book anyway. There's nothing to understand in the Krebs cycle.
I also vividly remember exams like advanced algebra were the professor genuinely did nothing but rewrite canned content on a board and could not really shed light on anything, you were on your own.
> And this is apparently super common even in ivy league universities as Youtube lessons have shown me over and over.
I think you have the “even” backwards. Elite research first universities have this problem more than teaching-first, low research output programs.
Sussman and Abelson are great at teaching.
I'm sure they are, just against the generalization that in class is always strictly necessary as not everyone is Sussman.