Recent content by hrc969

If you read my post carefully I never said I was at the same level as him, just in the same class. But this depressed him because he felt I was more advanced than he was when he was my age (and hence that I was smarter than him) and I was at a public school and he had been at Harvard. Also class...

I know some people like which you mention I'm sort of like mathboy and this got me advanced enough for me to start taking graduate math classes in my second year of university. There was a grad student in there who was a Harvard alumni and advanced for his age. It was very depressing to him that...

Wow, great response. My answer to the title of the thread was going to be "Well, I sit down, open a book, get some paper and start studying". But actually the advice your wife gave you is actually what I do since I study even while waiting for the bus etc, and I do precisely what the advice was...

Notice how you have changed the discussion from talking about geniuses and "the best" to scientists in general. Its possible that most scientists are humble as you don't have to be anything great to be a scientist. But if you are going to talk about the geniuses and "the best" then first you...

I wouln't think he does either given that you never really gave one. All you have been saying is "most books are bad". You don't really say why you think they are bad. You said Gamelin style in his complex analysis book was unacceptable but never said what that was supposed to mean. The only...

I am taking the honors undergrad algebra course at my school right now and the professor doesn't follow any book, he just "gives" us his notes. (However for him giving us his notes means we go to class and copy them from the board.) He does however assing a book for the class a a reference which...

If everyone has to take those courses then it is even more likely that a better (but harder) book will not be chosen. At my math department most of the "regular" courses used the same book assigned by some committee or some group prefessors (probably full and maybe associate professors)...

I am familiar with that series. The Fourier analysis one is used in a Fourier Analysis course which I was taking last year (but dropped because I was taking the graduate level complex analysis and I had to work harder than I was used to). Also I am auditing the course this year and we are using...

Well, that would go against what I have been trying to get you to do, which is to support your assertions. If I tell you something I would like you to read an example to give you an idea of why I said what I said. I guess one of the main points is that just because you think a book is bad...

Again, sometimes the courses listed as prerequisites are not those courses such that having done those you will find everything in the class easy to do. Instead many times it is the minimum of knowledge you need to have such that you can understand most of it if you work hard enough. So yeah...

Yeah, I have the third edition. But its still pretty old (1979). At least compared to my favorite Complex Analysis book (also in its third edition): https://www.amazon.com/dp/0821839624/?tag=pfamazon01-20. Well this is not always true. Krantz book on Several Complex Variables got a lot better...

I said sometimes it is necessary. What do you mean maybe not? You just seems to be trying to disagree here. It seems that you are not only willing to be wrong but also actively trying to be wrong. What does what you said about textbooks have to do with anything. You said reading distracts from...

You go ask people who know. Go ask people who are full professors you are much more likely to to get a good answer from them. Again, I suggest you go talk to Elman about the role of textbooks in mathematics education. And if book generally are bad, then who cares! (Although I certainly have not...

Yes you keep making your assertions without any real backing up. So instead of asserting your point, back it up. Again I invite you to continue the discussion on Gamelin's books. This gives us a concrete example we can focus on.

No one said that its equivalent. However SOMETIMES it is NECESSARY to read a hard text to learn what we want to learn. But sometimes mathematical ideas are not simple. Sometimes they are complicated and really hard to get across. I'm not really understanding what you are trying to say here. Can...