AllenDowney

Great question -- it is on my list of ideas for a future article!

That's true. I have the good fortune to work at a college (Olin College) that recognizes that my work developing textbooks is aligned with the mission of the institution, and can have as much external impact as research. But you are right -- most places give professors zero credit for writing textbooks.

I understand that "just write a book" might come off as glib, especially for profs who teach 3+ classes per semester. So I don't mean that everyone has to, or should, but

1. Writing 150 pages that are targeted for your class and your students is easier than writing "the bible" for your field.

2. The quality of the first draft might not be great, but if you are getting feedback and constantly improving, it's not long before you are better off than using one of the expensive tomes.

3. If you start with other free material, you can get off to a fast start (several people have now written books that started with my material, and then evolved beyond recognition).

This is very similar to my method. The first time I teach a class, I draft some notes. After the class, I fix the problems, or at least flag them for next time. The second time through, I add, remove, edit, refine, etc., based on feedback from students and my own observation (and, often, what I have learned since last time :)

Many of my examples start with code, so the first draft of the chapter is mostly explaining the worked example.

It's not very different from the work most profs do when they are developing a class, but at the end you have a book that has co-evolved to fit your students and the learning goals.

Working on it :) Maybe next year.

Hi All, Thanks for your interest in this book! It is a very rough draft, but I welcome comments and suggestions.

The code examples are not quite ready for prime time, but I will release them soon and update the (missing) link in the book.