Some days the markers go down and the talking is the mathematics. A conjecture only becomes knowledge after other people have pushed on it — with questions, counterexamples, and better conjectures — and the pushing is always aimed at ideas, never at the classmate brave enough to voice one. In a course where the derivative rules are conjectured before they are named and models get defended in public, that habit is not a nicety; it is the method. Argue hard with the claim; thank the person who made it.
Four conversations we return to all year:
- When Will I Use This — the oldest question, and the course that finally gets to answer it without deferring
- Mistakes Are Data — the lost-inner-derivative museum; never erase
- Why Struggle Is the Point — stuck-and-thinking versus spinning
- What Makes a Model Good — fitting the points is not the job
Come with opinions. Expect to leave with different ones.