tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8890204.post91068220355730660..comments2024-03-10T05:26:42.148-04:00Comments on My Biased Coin: Not Teaching / Double TeachingMichael Mitzenmacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738274256402616703noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8890204.post-40617852471762077352009-09-28T23:17:40.077-04:002009-09-28T23:17:40.077-04:00If you have time, we're looking for submission...If you have time, we're looking for submissions for a new column on our site. With your experience last semester, you probably have some good pieces.<br /><br />The column is a parody - an imagined exchange between TAs and undergrads.<br /><br /><a href="http://nonpretentious.com/topics/columns/grad-studentundergrad-student-exchanges/" rel="nofollow">Grad Student/Undergrad Student Exchanges</a><br /><br />If you don't want to write for it, I'd still love to hear your feedback, if you have time!<br /><br />best,<br /><br />mjseditor@nonpretentious.comhttp://nonpretentious.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8890204.post-31767599261763506172009-09-26T17:01:58.852-04:002009-09-26T17:01:58.852-04:00Hello,
Whatever you do, just write it up! (prefer...Hello,<br /><br />Whatever you do, just write it up! (preferably in your blog so others can profit from your experience).<br /><br />Although at a different stage in my career, I'm also enjoying the benefit of free time these days. After having worked several years as a s/w engineer, I left my job early this year to finish a long standing (part-time) PhD. Now that it's written up (and while waiting for the VIVA, and before embarking on a long around the world trip to celebrate ;) I have plenty of free time. I found that maintaining a strict work log has been really useful to manage my time and keep disciplined; and mostly to see how far I got and how bad I am at planning. Funny to see that what I thought I had planned was not really what I had planned :)<br /><br />Like the previous comments, I also choose to read... several things from Knuth's 'recent' Volume 4 of TAOCP to a few other areas that I haven't touched recently (including a book called 'Probability and Computing' by a certain Mitzenmacher... you may have heard: he has a great blog!)<br /><br />And if you decide to go for the high school book, may I suggest you enlarge the audience! People in social sciences and other areas are quite often interested in learning about the science of computing and may benefit from it as well (hey, maybe some s/w engineers could use it too).<br /><br />cheers,<br />Miguel Branco<br /><br />PS: An anonymous said that books are old technology and wikis more useful. I sort of agree with it... There has to be a more appealing way to spread knowledge than boring black-and-white characters... Not that I have studied the subject but reading and parsing someone else's english doesn't seem to be the same thing as reasoning... and I still don't know how to do the second without getting exhausted doing the first.miguelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04596226795215858153noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8890204.post-64144547254305228682009-09-23T10:14:24.767-04:002009-09-23T10:14:24.767-04:00Over the summer I was not teaching and I WANTED TO...Over the summer I was not teaching and I WANTED TO<br />read 5 books (Goldreich's<br />complexity, Arora-Barak<br />complexity, and the three<br />GAMES OF NO CHANCE books).<br />I ended up writing a paper instead AND fiddling with it AND making up slides for it AND...<br /><br />Personally I would rather read a good book then write a bad paper<br />(which is not to say the paper is bad--- actually I think its pretty good).<br />So I would READ READ READ<br />if I had the time.<br />I am sure there is stuff you always wanted to learn about but never quite had the time, NOWS the time.bill gasarchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8890204.post-28932277350628761652009-09-22T13:40:02.047-04:002009-09-22T13:40:02.047-04:00Spend time advising graduate students?Spend time advising graduate students?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8890204.post-27708229180127523782009-09-22T11:45:37.508-04:002009-09-22T11:45:37.508-04:00Books are old technology. Start a wiki on your fav...Books are old technology. Start a wiki on your favorite subject (say hashing), and let other people contribute. A wiki can contain survey of previous work, links to all related papers together with a comments area (annotated bibliography), open problems, exercises, slides for teaching, etc. Before you know it you'll have a "textbook" on-line which is always kept up to date by others.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8890204.post-46608337862209006992009-09-22T11:23:15.832-04:002009-09-22T11:23:15.832-04:00I'm teaching a large undergraduate course with...I'm teaching a large undergraduate course with very little support (one TA / 100 students) this semester, so I've been fantasizing about free time recently. Here are my top picks:<br /><br />1) Write. Books are good. But what about a CACM article on either a technical theme or, perhaps, the intricacies of theory/systems collaboration? Huge audience, but lots of pain making something readable by all of it. <br /><br />Your "TCS for high-schoolers" project also seems ripe for resurrection.<br /><br />2) Learn a new (sub)field. For example, I'd love to spend a month learning some (more) complex analysis and analytic number theory. That is probably crypto-specific, of course.<br /><br />3) Pick a hard problem and think/read about only that for periods of one or two weeks. Bliss.<br /><br />4) The usual: Hang out with your kids, take up a new hobby, read a novel or two...Adam Smithnoreply@blogger.com