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Comment by billswift | Hacker News Reader

To me this just came across as whiny and petty. From my high school experience and the little time I spent in college, the hard-nosed professors who insisted on hard work and punctuality actually contribute more to their students' eventual success than the easy-going, "nice" ones. I strongly suspect this guy was more successful because of what he calls his 'mistreatment' than because of the few "nice" professors.

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When the student has more resources to give, then upping the difficulty will draw the best out of that student. If a student has reached the end of his resources, upping the difficulty just adds stress and diminishes the chance for success.

If I am in the army, have a wife and a kid and a job, and one of these demands causes me to miss an occasional class, I don't understand how the professor not helping me make up the work will contribute to my eventual success.

Before I was able to find a job, I was taking some classes at a local college. I was at the end of my financial resources (I could barely afford shoes) and they wanted me to buy this expensive textbook and problem sets online. I already had a perfectly serviceable textbook, but I wanted to be able to practice for exams. I asked the prof. if he could print out a few from his laptop or something, and he flat out refused, even when I told him that I was too poor to afford it :-(. There might have been some miscommunication, but there are times when demands are clearly unreasonable.

Which college?

A kind professor can sometimes use their administrative privileges to create a "testing" account, which they can pass on to a student. Many of the courses I took in my undergrad degree required electronic components which may cost as much as the textbook.

Hard-nosed professors can be selfish. Students have a number of classes to attend, and a professor that insists their class requires more work (are they really that insecure?) is stealing time from the "nicer" (and possibly better) profs.

Maybe he's pulling up the ladder after he climbed it!

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