College

QR codes were invented in 1994.

Yeah so I could show up to class just to listen to the chucklefuck prof rewrite what I just read and be bored out of my mind

They promised to teach you how the world works didn't they? Enjoy your undischargable debt indentured servant!

Oops didn't mean to! Sowwy I won't do it again. (Does it again)

When I was doing my undergrad, there was this sketchy shop in a nearby alley where they photocopy textbooks and sold them for just a bit more than the cost of the paper and binding. If they didn't have it, you could borrow it from the library to lend them and they'll give you a free copy in exchange.

QR codes weren't a big thing at that time and weren't integrated into the first smart phones, eventually you could download an app to use a QR code. However those weren't really in use in education settings until closer to 2015.

Many people learn better if they both read something and have someone teach it to them in their own words, which is kind of the whole basis of a liberal arts education. Your learning mileage may vary.

There's nothing strange about unfettered greed. The only strange part is that it isn't (technically) a feudal system going along with it.

This guy also found a pretty nice (similar) solution for this:

They basically wrote their own textbook through class assignments, students are co-authors, seems to work great in their case. At least that's how he presents it.

I'm still a bit unsure how to handle that in my own classes. There are not always suitable OERs or the ones you find come with licensing issues (CC-NC and afaik it's not clear if you can use them because I do teach for the money).

Don't use LibGen.is - it undermines the publishing industry by distributing copyrighted content without permission. It has many text books available for free. This reduces publishers' ability to pay authors, fund peer review, and invest in quality academic resources. Support legal access options instead.

/s

There's been a qr code reader app available in the store since 2008. It woulda been doable.

Well, fuck the professor and or the school on this case. I would have encouraged you to make an official FTC complaint. Too bad that may not be around for much longer.

Different prof here, but a few thoughts:

• academia is not as shiny as it sometimes seems, but it can be great. You can have a lot of freedom to do what you like, work when you like, how you like... do meaningful things. Not always, but the chance is there
• it's not to get rich. Selling expensive textbooks is rookie level exploitation compared to what people do in the industry, and most of the profit doesn't even go to the prof

The book to read for this is "the professor is in". The author takes quite a cynical perspective about academia, but in many ways it's true. Worth a read (and probably you can get it for cheap second hand)

That's what I thought!!

But they weren't useful to the average person until probably around 2012-2013 when smartphone and data prices started to drop some.

Yeah but most people didn't have smartphones for a few more years. Making a smartphone required in 2008 would have been insane.

Wikipedia's entry on Z-Lib has its Tor address on it as well, so you can avoid that link too. Massive repository of textbooks and indeed books of any kind, all just available for free download. Makes me sick.

I will check that book out, thanks!

I'm not concerned with getting rich, I just want to be able to afford to support myself, and potentially a kid one day (though, that's increasingly unlikely). I'm a full time caregiver for my mom, she's disabled, and bedridden. So working from home is pretty important. I don't have any kind of, like, ivory tower aspirations or anything. I don't imagine I'm going to change the world, or be some oft-quoted academic. Lol. I'd love to teach Anthropology and go on digs some day, but I'm getting an English (creative writing) degree, and I'd love to just have a relatively stable income teach some kids about story structure one day.

The Eindhoven University of Technology?

Yeah, and Lincoln coulda faxed a samurai.