So this morning you got a medium-sized post about something happy and not at all work or school related.  Now you get a short (hopefully) post in which I vent about something school-related.

Also, sorry for all the swearing that is about to follow.  I usually try to keep swearing to a minimum on here, since my audience is intended to be broad and I don’t want to offend anyone.  But I am really frustrated right now and I cannot help it.  You won’t actually get the full force of my venting below if it doesn’t sound angry enough.

Also, also, if you got here by Googling “Willard” or “topology” or “math textbook,” turn back now.  You don’t want to read this.  It contains no real useful information except the ramblings of a crazy math grad student who’s had a little too much caffeine today.

GRRRRRRRRR.  General Topology by Willard is a pretty good book, as long as you’re not trying to do homework or actually learn anything out of it.  It’s a good reference, but you basically are going to need to take a class on the subject where the professor pretty much explains it all to you anyway, because Willard is fucking useless.  None of his questions are phrased as questions.  “This is a topology on X.”  Does that sound like a question to you?  If it were any self-respecting math textbook, it would say “Prove this is a topology on X” if it wants you to prove something.  This isn’t always a problem, because after a while you get used to him using cryptic declarative sentences that are actually meant as questions.  But every now and then, you have a whole paragraph, and it is literally impossible to tell which of the assertions made are intended to be given information and which of the assertions are statements that require proof.  Also, if I see one more time in that book “define such-and-such in the obvious way” instead of the stupid lazy author actually taking the time to define it so that there’s no ambiguity, I may lose my mind.  If you’re going to write a fucking introductory textbook on some subject in which you only assume an elementary knowledge of basic theoretical mathematics, you should probably not assume that everyone reading your book can build every definition in topology with no guidance.  What the fuck are you even writing a book about if you don’t define any of the terms you’re using or prove anything or give any examples of the things you don’t bother to define?  I know this is graduate school and we should be smart and be able to think for ourselves and we’re going to be working on dissertations soon that will require us to write our own new contributions to the field, but there is something to be said for style, and sometimes I genuinely hate this book.  Sometimes I read a sentence and I burn with rage and frustration at how positively ridiculous it is that this is included in an educational text.  It’s really hard to draft an e-mail to your professor to ask a question about a homework problem when you’re so angry you could punch a baby in the face and not even feel bad about it afterward.

Sigh.  Okay, I think I’m done.  I mean, I’m still mad, but I think I made all my major points.  As this blog grows, you are getting a more and more diverse picture of me.  Whether that’s good or bad remains to be seen…