So I'm taking a higher level mathematics course. The text book has been out of print for a while, but the prof likes it so that is what we are using. It's really not that great. In fact, it does more to confuse than to elucidate. A friend of mine who took the same class with another prof said that they had used another text book, which was written by a third prof in our beloved math department. That text book, apparently, also sucks.
It's kind of difficult to say what is going on here. Perhaps, math is just one of those subjects that is hard to explain. Or perhaps, those who are best qualified to write math text books are the least likely to be able to write well - the genius that cannot explain itself. Perhaps it is all baloney and the people whose text books we use are those who are friends with your prof. Or maybe the authors have built up such a reputation for themselves that as soon as they touch pen to paper, someone prints it and it gets used in classrooms across the nation. Either way, you start to wonder... if someone really understands something, shouldn't they be able to explain it in very simple terms, so that even a 5 year old would understand?
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