There is much truth to this post about about #math textbooks.

[butchrobot@ice.ch3.st]

@oantolin@mathstodon.xyz my Deep Learning professor shouted it out when I asked for proof of some matrix derivative he showed us. He said, he asked his wife (a math PhD) how to do matrix derivatives and she said, I don't know read this book 💀

[independentpen@mas.to]

@oantolin I like how the last one is basically a zine

[independentpen@mas.to]

@Elizafox @oantolin on my shelf!

[enfa@mefi.social]

@oantolin I think this might be the OG #tumblr post, can't find 'cauchys-special-boy' anywhere, might have changed blog name.
https://www.tumblr.com/ceausescue/740165166339063808/if-theres-one-thing-ive-learned-from-my-math

[oantolin@mathstodon.xyz]

@enfa Thanks for finding this!

[aburka@hachyderm.io]

@oantolin I think this applies to computer science textbooks too, except that if it has some unhinged shit like dragons or dinosaurs on the cover then it's probably also good

[oantolin@mathstodon.xyz]

@rossquantum I found the author of that brilliant meme! It's Davide Castelvecchi, using a meme format devised by mathstodon don, @christianp! See this blog post for other nice fake math books: https://aperiodical.com/2022/05/didnt-graduate-texts-in-mathematics/

[aburka@hachyderm.io]

@amy @oantolin and it's a required purchase for intro level classes of course

[moosader@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@oantolin maybe also true for my programming classes. 😅

[drangnon@hachyderm.io]

@oantolin can confirm

just by looking at the textbooks on my shelf

[butchrobot@ice.ch3.st]

@TallSimon@mstdn.ca @oantolin@mathstodon.xyz random tech blogs with clean, minimalist WordPress styling my beloved.

[kboyd@phpc.social]

@aburka @oantolin Yep, exactly.

I'm holding onto three textbooks from my college days. Two are plain and boring, informative but a bit of a slog.

One is glossy and useless and destined for (eventually) a burn pile. Perhaps when I retire.

[libroraptor@mastodon.nz]

@oantolin Courant. "Calculus". Best graphs and text in any intro calculus textbook I've ever read.

[tknarr@mstdn.social]

@oantolin Same in software development, cf. "Knuth", "Stevens", "K&R", "Stroustrup".

[oantolin@mathstodon.xyz]

@libroraptor Courant and John is a masterpiece, certainly.

[trebach@functional.cafe]

@DrSaucy @oantolin The textbook publishers are in bed with the university department heads to get them to require students to buy their textbook for their classes.

They also make sure to reduce the amount of time that the book can be used in classes by releasing a new edition every year or two. The difference between the editions are usually just a few different exercises, maybe a chapter gets moved, nothing substantial