tea.mathoverflow.net - Discussion Feed (big-list/community wiki question about textbooks - is it appropriate?)

Anton Geraschenko comments on "big-list/community wiki question about textbooks - is it appropriate?" (3462)

Anton Geraschenko — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:20:59 -0800

@Zavosh: Sorry, I think my previous post came off as harsh. I wasn't accusing you of asking people to compile a list for you personally; I was using "you" generically. I think this is actually a really useful discussion to have on meta. What I was getting at is that you (generic) will ask a much better question and get a much better response to a question if you're personally invested in it. That being the case, it's best to just wait until you have a good reason to be personally invested in learning about some field before asking a question, rather than launching an effort to help out some foggy character in the uncertain future.

Here's another way to think about it. One nice thing about answering somebody's question is that you know they are interested in what you have to say. You can pretty much count on them leaving a comment saying whether you've answered their question or at least helped them out, which makes answering the question somewhat more rewarding. If the question is of the form, "let's make a useful resource for future generations (but I'm not really that interested in anything specific right now myself)" then the question just isn't as satisfying to answer, so I think it won't get answers that are as good. If we encourage people to only ask questions they are actually interested in answering right now, then it's easier for them to ask the question, it's a better question, it's easier to write answers, and the answers are better.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's absolutely worth it to create great resources for future generations. It's just that we end up doing a better job of that when we take the "short-sighted" approach.

Scott Morrison comments on "big-list/community wiki question about textbooks - is it appropriate?" (3460)

Scott Morrison — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:08:25 -0800

I turned off the ability to delete meta posts, as I decided that it was causing more trouble to the moderators than benefit to users. I can be persuaded to reverse this decision -- anyone who wants to start this process should start a new thread explaining their reasoning, and I'll make my case there.

Anweshi comments on "big-list/community wiki question about textbooks - is it appropriate?" (3454)

Anweshi — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:12:27 -0800

Asking textbooks for a standard subject is not a bad idea.

For a certain reason, I needed a reference for something that is not my subject(Teichmuller theory). I asked a question(10514) here on my first day, and got good responses. I suppose at that time it was thought that I was trolling with too many questions.

But it was actually very useful for me, and I did post a follow-up question(12334) based on my reading from one of the sources in the list.

This post is partially for defending myself, and partially for suggesting that asking textbook list questions is not a bad idea.

Zavosh comments on "big-list/community wiki question about textbooks - is it appropriate?" (3451)

Zavosh — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:03:37 -0800

Well Anton, clearly I was wrong, but I just want to clarify that I didn't mean for the MO community to collectively compile for me personally a document that I might not use. That would be very selfish. I just thought it would be useful for everyone in the future and as many have commented, that is not the general opinion.

On a semi-related note, why can't we delete meta posts?

Anton Geraschenko comments on "big-list/community wiki question about textbooks - is it appropriate?" (3450)

Anton Geraschenko — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:38:26 -0800

I don't like the idea of one big question, and I don't think it makes sense to have one for each subject either. It feels like a vague fluffy question to me; I don't see what problem it solves. Why not wait until the problem actually arises and then ask a specific question? In other words, wait until you're honestly going to learn about something, google around a bit to find out what the standard references are, and if those are lacking in some way, ask the question on MO. This Shimura curves question is an excellent example. By waiting until the problem actually arises, you can provide much more information about where you're coming from and what you're looking to accomplish, so people will probably be able to give you much better information. They'll also be much more willing to write a useful detailed summary of the literature if you actually want to learn the material, rather than just compile a list that you might use at some undetermined point in the future.

Scott Morrison comments on "big-list/community wiki question about textbooks - is it appropriate?" (3449)

Scott Morrison — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:06:18 -0800

@Zavosh -- remember we have plenty of time. Why not ask a specific question? You don't need to ask them all at once. Sometime later, you or someone else can cover another subject area. This seems to be best of both worlds.

Zavosh comments on "big-list/community wiki question about textbooks - is it appropriate?" (3448)

Zavosh — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 08:59:56 -0800

I'm not going to ask it because I think asking a separate question for every math topic I can think of will just spam MO, annoy everyone, and beat the purpose of having all the information in one document. Asked all at once it would nullify other previous questions on specific topics, and go against the general advice here, as well as possibly generate a huge mass of answers that would be difficult to sort through.

Maybe someone else will ask it at some point.

Harry Gindi comments on "big-list/community wiki question about textbooks - is it appropriate?" (3436)

Harry Gindi — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:08:19 -0800

I thought it was a good idea. Why aren't you going to ask it anymore?

Zavosh comments on "big-list/community wiki question about textbooks - is it appropriate?" (3435)

Zavosh — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:01:46 -0800

Well I thought the whole point was to have them all in one place, but I understand the objections. Won't be asking the question after all, but thanks for considering it.

Harry Gindi comments on "big-list/community wiki question about textbooks - is it appropriate?" (3433)

Harry Gindi — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:16:02 -0800

I'd personally prefer if you didn't ask them all at once, but it's not really my call, so I'm merely requesting that you not post all of them at once.

Scott Morrison comments on "big-list/community wiki question about textbooks - is it appropriate?" (3432)

Scott Morrison — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:10:15 -0800

Yeah, I think separate questions is more appropriate. Why would you want them all in one place? We have search, and we have google.

Ilya Grigoriev comments on "big-list/community wiki question about textbooks - is it appropriate?" (3431)

Ilya Grigoriev — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 21:59:30 -0800

I think there should be more than one question. If textbooks from all subjects are piled up in the same thread, they won't be sorted nicely, and it'll be generally confusing to read. I'd make one question for each (broad) area of math. In fact, even for a specific area of math, there might be many answers...

Qiaochu Yuan comments on "big-list/community wiki question about textbooks - is it appropriate?" (3427)

Qiaochu Yuan — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:35:59 -0800

You should at least link to the more specific questions and maybe stipulate that additional recommendations in those subjects should go in those threads and not yours. I don't think anyone would want the answers divided between two questions.

Harry Gindi comments on "big-list/community wiki question about textbooks - is it appropriate?" (3424)

Harry Gindi — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:39:26 -0800

I approve, and I'm usually more strict than anyone else about this sort of thing, so that's a pretty good indication that it's fine. You might want to request answers formatted as follows:

Subject I

Author - Title
Author - Title

Subject II

Author - Title ...

If you're looking for specific subjects, it will be worth it to mention which ones you want in the question.

Zavosh comments on "big-list/community wiki question about textbooks - is it appropriate?" (3423)

Zavosh — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:30:53 -0800

I want to ask a question about current standard textbooks in everyone's field of expertise. I can see this question has been asked for certain topics, but I can't find a question that has asked it for all topics. I think it would be a useful list to have for those who want to learn a new field, or at least skim through it. As a student of arithmetic geometry I can immediately tell someone to look at Hartshorne, Liu, or Mumford, and to avoid Weil's book for example, but I don't know if Sigurdur Helgason's 1978 book on Differential Geometry is still standard.

Is this an appropriate (and new) question to ask?