/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.8305882]

>"it can be easily shown that..."
>"easily"
>"this important concept is given as an exercise to the reader to decipher...."
>attempt exercise at the end of the chapter
>can't even solve it

Why do so many authors do this /sci/?

[Anonymous No.8305887]

If I'm ever going to make a book on CS, I'll start it by stating
>Theorem 1: [math]P \neq NP[/math]
and
>The proof is left as an exercise.

[Anonymous No.8305890]

>>8305882
They have higher expectations of you as a reader.

[Anonymous No.8305896]

>>8305882
t. John David Jackson

[Anonymous No.8305897]

>>8305882
I think that the authors usually intend that these books are to be paired with an actual college course with classes, so that the "exercise" (if indeed not too obvious) would be covered in a class.

[Anonymous No.8305902]

>>8305890
Not really. There is a desparate demand for academic books to be more easily accessible. In a free market that would be the case. But thanks to the monopoly these few journals and publishers have they can charge $150 per book even if it is complete garbage, and force professors to teach from it.

[Anonymous No.8305908]

>>8305902
>There is a desparate demand for academic books to be more easily accessible.
No there isn't. If you give in to the retards who need simplified analogies and hand holding to get through a book, you're really doing everyone a disservice.

[Anonymous No.8305912]

>>8305908
>everyone a disservice

You mean denying your ego trip

[Anonymous No.8305921]

>>8305912
No, you're lowering the standards of education. Compare textbooks written in the 60s and 70s to the ones today. Standards were higher, dropout rates were higher, but the ones that made it through were thoroughly competent in their discipline.

These days it's about getting as many asses in lecture seats so the administrators can make more money.

[Anonymous No.8305923]

>attempt question
>cant do answer
>after feeling awful about my IQ and demoralised I finally look up the answer
>answer involves either a change of variables or taylor series

[Anonymous No.8305924]

>>8305921
>muh good ol' days
>muh Golden Age fallacy

Butthurt boomer detected.

[Anonymous No.8305929]

>>8305921
>muh good ol' days

Butthurt boomer detected.

[Anonymous No.8305932]

>>8305882
Because you don't understand that "easily" in this context means that you just follow your nose using standard methods, and leaving it as an exercise makes you actually think it through at the appropriate level

[Anonymous No.8305937]

>>8305929
>education standards are just fine today
http://professorconfess.blogspot.ca/2013/06/all-remedial-classes-in-one-place.html

[Anonymous No.8305945]

>>8305937
>used to think it was bullshit
>one day find a metallurgy class handout from 30 years ago that was forgotten inside our dorm walls false ceiling
>it's absolutely based as fuck and in depth
>all we get today is fucking prints of the teacher's powerpoint

[Anonymous No.8305953]

>>8305937
>the butthurt boomer links a blog about other other butthurt boomers whining about muh good ol' days