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Horseshit.

The instructor has a serious impact on how the material is presented. I had transform mathematics from David Huffman of Huffman coding fame at the same time I had a similar physics math course.

Both got to the same end, but I only passed both because of the approach and the notes I had from Huffman.

Everyone learns differently and that situation where a professor can convey things on a way that clicks isn’t going to happen with a random YouTube video.



You bring up David Huffman, but how many Huffman's and Feynman's are there out there?

Many postdocs who teach are just beginning their academic careers and are juggling running their analyses and creating their profiles that will bring them fame, against their less rewarding teaching duties.

My academic has peaked, so I put more of myself into teaching and training and often find it rewarding when I interact freely with a few keen individuals, but the majority of students out there aren't keen. They're there because they are forced to learn to my schedule and not theirs


There are enough of them, to be honest I passed my degree by the skin of my teeth because I'd spent a year out in industry and found some of it a bit too academic.

I do still however fondly remember my CS101 course with Richard Bornat (who I thought was an excellent lecturer) and wish I'd taken more interest in the lambda calculus elements of the curriculum (we had Peter Landin as head of department) but at the point in time I was heading more down a C / embedded systems / ASIC path.


I trust youtube videos rated well by millions of people over the average professor's ability to convey info. Few people go to the top colleges with the best professors.


"top colleges" are "top" because of rankings prioritizing research output. Don't expect them to have a monopoly on the best teachers.


Watch a video from a Harvard prof and then one from a directional state school. The Harvard guy usually expects a lot more out of his students, but he's also a million times better at explaining the course content.




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