Re: Solving Homework in Pairs

On Thursday 31 May 2007, Nadav Har'El wrote:
> On Thu, May 31, 2007, Shlomi Fish wrote about "Re: [hackers-il] Solving 
Homework in Pairs":
> > When my friend and partner for many courses took the Mathematics
> > department Set Theory course, we realised that the scope of the exercise
> > was too big for both of us. So we ended up solving it together (in a
> > synergical way) and my friend wrote the solution (because he had a better
> > hand-writing) and we handed it together. It was less work than handing
> > two identical solutions him with his hand-writing, and mine with my
> > crappy hand-writing. But we each got only half the credit.
>
> The professor must have thought to himself, "God! What planet are these
> guys from?"... He didn't tell you that you can hand-in exercises together,
> and yet you did. You admit that each of you were unable to do the exercise
> alone, 

No, I didn't admit that. You're jumping to conclusions.

We could have done the exercise each on his won. We were two very intelligent 
people who eventually both graduated from the Technion's EE department 
cum-laude, which is a feat that requires quite a bit of intelligence. We 
certainly could have handled the first exercise of a first-semester Math 
department course.

However:

1. Had I done it alone, it would have been handed in my incredibly awful 
hand-writing.

2. It would have required each of us to either work on it on our own (much 
more work and less synergy), or alternatively solve it together and then each 
hand a different copy with his hand-writing, or in my case something written 
in English in LaTeX, which would have taken me a lot of time to key into the 
computer.

The end result was that I eventually dropped the entire semester and took it 
off, due to this course and other very interesting, but demanding courses. 
This was the only voluntary course I took from the Math department except 
for "Game Theory". In Game Theory, I ended up not preparing the homework 
(voluntary) most of the semester, buying the Open University booklets, 
studying from them close to the test, and getting a passing grade in the 
test. I felt the material was quite enlightening. 

> and that you tried to cut down on the amount of work - so can you 
> really be surprised that you got half the grade? Should you get the same
> grade as people who did all the work on their own?

If the Math department had a bit more human factors engineering, they would 
know that it doesn't matter. But they don't and they don't care.

>
> > My hand writing is another thing I'm frustrated about. When I came to the
> > Technion my hand-writing was pretty bad, and it only deteriorated. Part
> > of it
>
> Did you ever try to work on this issue? 

No, I didn't. I didn't care enough. At least not until now.

> I never wrote - using paper and 
> pencil - so much as I did in the technion. I literally wrote thousands of
> pages, finished more than one eraser, and till this day (13 years after
> finishing my BA) I have a small "yabelet" on my hand where I held the
> pencil. 

So the Technion also claims your body? And sorry for all the trees.

> Writing is part of your studies, and there's nothing you can do 
> about it (nowadays you can use the computer more, and hand all exercises
> printed, but still you'll need to write on paper during tests). Better
> learn to deal with it, as much as you can (given your medical condition)
> rather than fight it...

Well, just a note:

I already have a Bachelor of Sciences (B.Sc.) in Electrical Engineering from 
the Technion. This is good enough to be accepted into most jobs (and 
certainly most jobs that I care about). Hell, I'm qualified enough to program 
missiles or work for NASA using a B.Sc. degree.[1]

{{{{{{{{
[1] - Qualified, but it would be a stretch to think I'll be ready or that I 
won't need any training.
}}}}}}}}

As such I have little motivation to get a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering. The 
way I saw it, the first B.Sc. should be taken in order to eat and make a 
living. A B.Sc. in EE was about the best I could get with my interests for 
that, and the Technion is a pretty good school for that.

Furthermore, right now, I have no intention of getting any further higher 
degrees any time soon. I recall having suffered enough abuse while being in 
the Technion, and it will take a lot of time for me to recover my senses.

At the moment, I'm leaning towards having a degree in something more humane, 
like History of the Old World (Near East, Europe and North Africa), or 
Linguistics, or English and/or other languages. Perhaps something else.

If I will do a Ph.D. in a Realistic field, then it probably won't be in the 
Technion.

Right now, I've got much better things to do with my time, than study such 
things in the form of a university. The Wikipedia and other online and 
offline resources are good enough for that, and I admit that I have perhaps 
dedicated too little time for reading them.

At the moment I'm working on my home-site, blog, essays, articles, open-source 
projects, stories and other projects. This is what gives me and others the 
most benefit, and teaches me the most. Going back to university will be a 
huge waste of time, and will likely give me much more frustrations (due to 
my "medical condition"), than being unemployed or even working at a good, 
unabusive workplace ever can.

With enough work on my online resources, some white-hat-SEO and viral and 
non-viral publicity, I can become well-known enough to be self-sustaining, as 
well as be able to get a lot of contracts or commissions. I don't need a 
Ph.D. in Philosophy to become a Philosopher. Most Philosophers have not had 
one. And I don't need to be a qualified writer to write essays or stories, 
which I have been writing for 10 years now, and received many compliments 
for.

As for programming - it is a well-known fact that some high school kids with 
one year of experience can write much better code and are much more 
productive than some people with Ph.D.'s in Computer Science and 5 years of 
experience. So again, the CS qualifications are not a panacea.

Just for the record, I realise every programmer, including very good ones, can 
write bad code and they sometimes even do. But only good programmers can 
write good code. Likewise for writing essays, articles, and stories.

Regards,

	Shlomi Fish

P.S: and just for the record - I still think I'm right when claiming it is a 
better idea to allow working in pairs. I find that Nadav has still avoided 
refuting my reasons.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Shlomi Fish      shlomif-ik1l9ssToec+JF/[email protected]
Homepage:        http://www.shlomifish.org/

If it's not in my E-mail it doesn't happen. And if my E-mail is saying
one thing, and everything else says something else - E-mail will conquer.
    -- An Israeli Linuxer


 
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