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Comment by jcromartie | Hacker News Reader

Having recently taken an accounting class, this is amazing.

The course I took was chock full of "because that's the way it is" explanations of terms and practices, which without fail left me feeling confused and unsatisfied. I think most people here are like me and really need deep explanations of the lower level concepts in order to be able to apply higher level concepts. Accounting coursework is absolutely horrible at this.

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Agreed. It always surprises me how a subject that is very regimented in its rules and regulations can easily skip over defining all of those foundational principles (my small forays into learning accounting consists of learning through deciphering examples rather than being able to see something as clear as this page). It may be that the subject is liable to the problem of "everyday" words that carry deeper, technical meanings in the context of the subject - as in, everyone already knows what sales and accounts receivable are, right? Great, now let's move on....

Accounting courses are horrific, but in fairness they try to get you up to speed on the basics before diving into the detail.

A typical CSI 101 course is often like this -- you learn about operators, etc without understanding how things actually work until later.

I had really great accounting professors, who explained WHY things were done.

As with anything else, assume a normal distribution of teaching talent, and hope you end up being taught by somebody on the right side of the curve.

"Because that's the way it is" describes my entire mathematics education. It didn't work for me, and I can't help but think there has to be a better way.

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