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I think the Stewart book has been successful
for many reasons.
One of them is this attention to detail that he has.
I've mentioned that we would go back and forth
with a single sentence,
and that level of detail is throughout the entire book.
It took him eight years to write the first edition,
and that's working like 364 days a year.
He would sweat every little detail
and every little sentence, every word was
so carefully chosen.
I mean, you can literally look at the book
as an accumulation of thousands and thousands
of tiny decisions that were all made.
We write for two audiences, not just one.
For the student and for the professor,
so that the book is not just a learning tool for students,
it's also a teaching tool for professors.
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The problem-solving approach of the text
is really an important part of the text
because Professor Stewart believed
that problem solving is not just something that's innate
in a person, but it's something that can be learned.
He took a course from George Pólya,
the famous problem solver.
I believe he had a big impact on Jim.
So one of the things he did in the very first chapter,
at the end of the first chapter,
is he has a summary of Pólya's principles
and he calls them Principles of Problem Solving,
and he goes very carefully through some advice
on how to approach just any problem in general,
things you can try.
But the cool thing about it in the book
is he uses that throughout the book,
and so he'll often refer back to it.
So, you'll see he has a little icon he used.
And he'll say like, "Here we are using
"the principle we talked about."
You know, so and so, if you want to refer back to it.
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If you understand the concept, you understand
how to apply calculus to your particular job,
or your particular problem that you're faced with.
There's a focus on the concept of each idea.
The bulk of the learning happens while they do it in WebAssign,
where they have many more problems that they have to do
and just check their answer right away,
that's one of the most powerful things that you know
whether you've done the problem right or not.
I would really like the students to see
the bigger picture.
I would really like to get them to see the beauty
and appreciate it as well, but I'd like them to see
the larger overall concept.
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