“College Was Not That Terrible Now That I’m Not That Crazy” by Zack_M_Davis

Jan 2, 2026

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Previously, I wrote about how I was considering going back to San Francisco State University for two semesters to finish up my Bachelor's degree in math.

So, I did that. I think it was a good decision! I got more out of it than I expected.

To be clear, "better than I expected" is not an endorsement of college. SF State is still the same communist dystopia I remember from a dozen years ago—a bureaucratic command economy dripping in propaganda about how indispensible and humanitarian it is, whose subjects' souls have withered to the point where, even if they don't quite believe the propaganda, they can't conceive of life and work outside the system.

But it didn't hurt this time, because I had a sense of humor about it now—and a sense of perspective (thanks to life experience, no thanks to school). Ultimately, policy debates should not appear one-sided: if things are terrible, it's probably not because people are choosing the straightforwardly terrible thing for no reason whatsoever, with no trade-offs, coordination problems, or nonobvious truths making the terrible thing look better than it is. The thing that makes life under communism unbearable is the fact [...]

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Outline:

(01:45) Doing It Right This Time (Math)

(02:31) Real Analysis II (Fall 2024)

(11:48) Probability Models (Fall 2024)

(19:15) The 85th William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition

(20:51) Measure and Integration (Spring 2025)

(25:04) Theory of Functions of a Complex Variable (Spring 2025)

(33:16) Modern Algebra I (Spring 2025)

(38:59) Not Sweating the Fake Stuff (Non-Math)

(39:41) Queer Literatures and Media (Fall 2024)

(49:31) Philosophy of Animals (Spring 2025)