Jason (jcreed) wrote,
Jason
jcreed

Just a Dipole Moment...

Yeah, so I'm thinking that I will actually take Physics II. I've argued over the issue with several friends and acquaintances by now; Pete was the most vocal supporter of taking the class, and opinions were mixed among everyone else. I guess it's sort of hard for someone other than me to have a strong opinion in favor of me not taking the class. Rather only a semi-emphatic sort of agreeing apathy that a double degree isn't necessary.

But some of Pete's arguments really got to me after I thought about it more.

One, "Physics II is not a hard class". Granted, my counterargument is "Physics II is not a hard class", because I usually hate taking such trivial classes. However, it's not as if I'm agonizing over taking grad Quantum Comp for 12 units and worrying I won't be able to pass or something.

Two, this is really the last chance I have. During the argument I denied it, but I'm pretty sure that if I don't take it now, there's a minimal chance that I'll be willing to take it during the summer or during grad school. It's just one semester of annoyance versus the rest of my life of remembering what I did in college. The amount of utility derived from getting a double degree is minimal, though. It's like I'm comparing two integrals, one over dt and the other over d-utility somehow.

Three, (and this really came more out of my own thinking later) being able to do this seems representative -- symbolic, almost -- of my ability to actually decide I'm going to accomplish some arbitrary feasible thing and then actually put forth enough effort to do it, something which I don't usually do, and want to be able to do in the future. The very fact that it is kind of a pointless accomplishment in the end seems to make it even more important, somehow.

Anyway, the lecture is much bigger than last time I tried to sit through it, so it doesn't look like they're trying to do as much audience participation bullshit.
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