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George Goley's avatar

I love this post. I will suggest a 4a or 11 for you: the very best way to learn a thing is to teach that thing.

Teaching curious and courageous students, who will ask challenging questions, requires the teacher to understand the problems and the solutions more deeply than is possible in any other scenario in my experience and in my opinion.

Thank you for sharing your thinking.

Tivadar Danka's avatar

Thanks! (Good) teaching is the peak of knowledge for sure. I remember feeling lost the first time I taught a course at the university. I realized how little I understand the material.

George Goley's avatar

Thank you. I also learned a great deal writing monthly columns about database programming. I was never sure how a column might be received, but I was certain that any mistake or suboptimal line I wrote would be prominently displayed in what was then called letters to the editor. So, I have a lot of respect for content creators who publish and stand behind code that can be run.

Tivadar Danka's avatar

As I often joke about it, the best growth strategy is to intentionally leave mistakes in your posts!

Balaji Anbil's avatar

Loved this write up! Incidentally I was talking about “working the math problems at a reduced pace” just yesterday with my son.

my only £0.02 is the first point could have been worded as Break the assumptions is the first course of action… but I guess that was the hook as you had covered it up with the second point! 💪

Tivadar Danka's avatar

Thanks! For some reason the current zeitgeist leans towards exploitation in the good old "exploitation vs. exploration" idea, but science (not just math) is in fact rewards exploration more.

THE WELL WISHER's avatar

“It’s not that there are no stupid questions,” the words of my professor echo in my ears, “it’s that not asking your questions is stupid.”....

Ask questions even if goes subtle or be stupid....

Asking Questions is a superpower.... GRATITUDE ❣️....