on cutting corners
i... can't do it, for some reason.
i've been pretty pressed for time this semester, and finding time to do "important" things amidst all the "urgent" things has been a huge challenge. and since this is (ostensibly) my last undergrad semester, i've decided that it would be nice to do a little worse in classes so i can spend more time on better things.
(disclaimer: i do know the "you're here to learn" thing. i've got it in mind that what i'll get out of these low-priority classes is a "general sense" of the material, able to think about it in rudimentary ways, but not solve complex problems. i mean, that's all that stuck with me from the freshman-year theory courses that i did do well in, so it can't be all bad.)
anyway. examples:
in algebraic structures, our homeworks are graded so leniently that basically if you put any nontrivial answer down, you will get near-full credit on the problem. so i think, well, i don't even care about my grade in this course, though an A would be nice - and so i try to adopt a "do a half-ass job on each of the problems" approach. but, i just spent 4+ hours churning away at this week's assignment until i felt like i had solutions that i wouldn't feel totally guilty about handing in, and, well... that's more energy than i wanted to spend!
for pragmatism, there is a term paper. i'm aiming for at most a B in that class, and so i wish to only put forth as much effort as will get me a B, which seems like it would involve generating a mediocre paper... but still, as i've been getting started thinking about what to write about, i've got some sort of "i have to do this assignment justice" attitude buried somewhere that can't be ignored.
and the end result... whether i keep it in mind or not that i want to spend less energy on these things, i don't actually end up with more free time. waugh...
i've been pretty pressed for time this semester, and finding time to do "important" things amidst all the "urgent" things has been a huge challenge. and since this is (ostensibly) my last undergrad semester, i've decided that it would be nice to do a little worse in classes so i can spend more time on better things.
(disclaimer: i do know the "you're here to learn" thing. i've got it in mind that what i'll get out of these low-priority classes is a "general sense" of the material, able to think about it in rudimentary ways, but not solve complex problems. i mean, that's all that stuck with me from the freshman-year theory courses that i did do well in, so it can't be all bad.)
anyway. examples:
in algebraic structures, our homeworks are graded so leniently that basically if you put any nontrivial answer down, you will get near-full credit on the problem. so i think, well, i don't even care about my grade in this course, though an A would be nice - and so i try to adopt a "do a half-ass job on each of the problems" approach. but, i just spent 4+ hours churning away at this week's assignment until i felt like i had solutions that i wouldn't feel totally guilty about handing in, and, well... that's more energy than i wanted to spend!
for pragmatism, there is a term paper. i'm aiming for at most a B in that class, and so i wish to only put forth as much effort as will get me a B, which seems like it would involve generating a mediocre paper... but still, as i've been getting started thinking about what to write about, i've got some sort of "i have to do this assignment justice" attitude buried somewhere that can't be ignored.
and the end result... whether i keep it in mind or not that i want to spend less energy on these things, i don't actually end up with more free time. waugh...