Useful Lecture from a Former Student

Dave Robbins could have put this in comments. Maybe he didn't want you to see his note, but I do.



By the way, he has a terrific blog called "Talking to Strangers." Worth checking out and reading.



Here's what Dave taught his former professor today:



Jay,I just read your latest blog post.



I wanted to comment on the line, "I'm not experiencing a sense of wonder that I could share. I'm experiencing a sense of plodding that I don't imagine a lot of people want to read about."



You're right. No one wants to read about plodding. That's why plodding,suffering and struggle NEVER appear in art. It is the reason why Blues music was never invented, and Shakespeare's Sonnet #30 was never written.



Wait... what? That doesn't make any sense.



What good would a book about learning be if the protagonist never once wanted to quit? Where would be the dramatic ark? Why would the climax be satisfying if it took no effort to get there?



You find me a book where the main character never once suffers - and I'll find you a book that never got published.



What's inspiring about your blog is that it's about a distinguished academic struggling with the same things us lowly undergrads have to struggle with. I don't know how many of your classmates are reading - but how much of a relief do you think that would be to them if they read it and though "Oh... well if he's struggling - I guess I'm not the only one.



"Hang in there, and keep writing about it. It's not suppose to be easy - that's why it's worth reading.



-Dave



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Dave was a member of the Border Beat staff last semester. If you go there and click on "archive" at the bottom, you can find some of the good stories he created.



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About Friday's math test. I'm pretty sure I passed. Barely.

I messed up the final question. It went sort of like this:

A rectangle has an area of 240 square yards. You need to build a wall around it and a fence across the length in the middle. The wall costs $5 a yard and the fence costs $8 a yard. Find a function in terms of the length of the fence determine the dimensions that will cost the least.

I got started by confusing the area with the perimeter and it went down hill from there.

I worked on the problem tonight and think I solved it. I'll ask tomorrow before I find out my score for the test.