JoshuaZ comments on Knowledge is Worth Paying For - Less Wrong

45 Post author: lukeprog 21 September 2011 06:09PM

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Comment author: JoshuaZ 22 September 2011 02:34:49AM 10 points [-]

The set of people who want journal access is very small compared to the set of people who want free movies, music or tv shows. Moreover, most of the people who will benefit from journal access are people who have university access. (Although there is an issue there that this is much more difficult for small schools.) So there's not that much market for it.

Comment author: SilasBarta 22 September 2011 02:42:38AM 3 points [-]

You could say the same thing about textbooks, thereby proving that avaxhome.ws doesn't exist.

Comment author: JoshuaZ 22 September 2011 02:50:17AM 11 points [-]

There are a lot more undergrads that want basic textbooks than there are people who want to read research papers.

Comment author: SilasBarta 22 September 2011 02:52:52AM *  2 points [-]

Undergrads typically need the physical textbook, not just an electronic one, for example to use in an open book test. (Though I was mainly trying to smuggle in a mention of a pirate site that does cater to autodidacts ...)

Comment author: Kaj_Sotala 22 September 2011 07:33:59AM *  9 points [-]

I have a Bachelor's degree and I've never either had an open-book test in college, nor heard of anyone having one. (Though we did have a couple of "you may bring one A4 worth of your own notes" tests.)

Comment author: [deleted] 11 April 2012 10:10:29PM *  1 point [-]

It depends on where you are, among other things. In Italy, about 90% of the tests I've taken in university were open-book, but I spent one year as an exchange student in Ireland and none of the tests I took there were open-book.

Comment author: [deleted] 26 September 2011 01:26:25AM 1 point [-]

While I've never finished a Bachelor's, I did spend about two years at a university and open-book exams weren't unheard of at all.

Comment author: MBlume 22 September 2011 11:44:11PM 0 points [-]

Nearly every upper division physics final at UCI.

Comment author: JoshuaZ 23 September 2011 12:22:52AM 3 points [-]

Sorry, nearly every one of them fell into which category? I can parse your sentence as being open to textbooks, being not at all open or allowing you to bring your small bit of notes.

Comment author: Douglas_Knight 23 September 2011 01:52:53AM 0 points [-]

Did any of them restrict the edition of the textbook?

Comment author: ZankerH 23 September 2011 12:20:59AM 2 points [-]

Instructors on my university had no problem with people bringing copied books to open-book exams.

Comment author: [deleted] 11 April 2012 10:14:32PM 1 point [-]

In most tests in my university, people are allowed to bring pretty much everything they want except other people and devices to communicate with the outside world.

Comment author: JoshuaZ 22 September 2011 03:01:14AM *  2 points [-]

Many classes don't have open book tests. This is especially true outside the sciences. The market is still much much larger than that for research papers.