On Fri, Aug 06, 2004 at 07:56:37AM -0500, Michael Halcrow wrote: > The day you entirely lose your dependence on the TA is the day that > you become a truly free student. :-)
Very, very true. > Around my junior year, I decided to satisfy the requirements for my > labs in whatever way I felt was best, rather than how the TA's knew > how to do it. For the CS240 C++ mini-database, I took full advantage > of C++ templates to handle as much data management (storage, sorting, > etc.) as possible, which the TA's at the time were not recommending, Though this is slightly different, it happnes in math to. Don't expect to get help at the math lab for anything higher than introductory level calculus, actually anything higher than calculus I. I once had a math lab guy absolutely refuse to help me with a function of random variables. (: In many technical fields you eventually have to trust your own capability in making meaningfully valued decisions, even if the formal educational environment doesn't ``support'' it and thinks it is wise to apply discoragement. I've gotten this kind of lecture many times and not just in education, like when I told the guy at Totally Awesome Computers that I was going to put RedHat 8.0 and only RedHat 8.0 on my computer, not that windows-somthing-or-other stuff. You must conform or you will be dangerously unsupported; imagine what awful things may happen to you if you don't conform with everybody else. No, I will not join the benign conformance of cluless TAC buyers. Imagine what it would be like to conform with everybody else. No thanks. This will eventually happen once you get a job, because then they expect you to effectively practice science or technology, and there will be no mystically authoritative TA's. I believe that the earlier you are willing to break from the formal vestments of education the more you will learn. I mean once you are willing to take responsibility for your education instead of just implicitly trusting the conventional program. Technology is not after all a prefabricated science meant for square consumption or memorization from a grammar book. Nothing is. It's not research if you know what you are doing. > and as a result, I was the first student to finish that infamous exam > where you had to code up a working mini-database in the time alloted > (some other hot-shot tried to pass off 10 minutes before me, but he > seg faulted ;-). Think: laziness, impatience, and hubris. <The theoretical physics equivalent of Michael's motto, whatever it is, goes here.> Perhaps, think: curiosity, aesthetic, inspiration, and work. Justin ____________________ BYU Unix Users Group http://uug.byu.edu/ ___________________________________________________________________ List Info: http://uug.byu.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uug-list
