Master of Ceremonies

The Enemy

There was a particular lecturer that I did not like. He was MIT-educated and didn't believe in watering down anything (according to his previous students). He had a nasty habit of openly (but playfully) insulting presumably weak students who were confused during his lectures. I was on the receiving end of his playfulness ...once.

"Sir, what is that?" I asked while pointing at some obscure thing he had scribbled on the blackboard. He smiled. "It's black magic," came the response.

It oddly gave him a sense of pleasure to confuse the class. Occasionally, you'd see him writing what seemed (at the time) gibberish. Then he'd suddenly stop, spin around, and with a big broad smile on his face, he'd check if the entire class was following —knowing beforehand the likely answer. 

He was a big hypocrite too. I remember once he asked something, and someone (not me, because by then I knew better) said, "Sir, not all of us can program in that language just yet you know!" His response? A quick snotty, "Speak for yourself!" Yet when he had to "explain" difficult topics, that he didn't have much patience to properly elucidate, he'd quickly ask, "does everyone understand this?" Some asshole trying to sound intellectually sharp would chirp, "Yes sir!" And he'd loudly say, "Good!" without turning his back, and moved right along with the lesson.

So, if you ask for compassion (for the benefit of your fellow classmates) he'd shut you up, but if you stated that everyone understood, he'd consider that perfectly acceptable? For shame!

This man had the worst pass rate in the department. It didn't matter to him, nor anybody apparently. He was the head of the department and was feared. It was not as if he would punish himself now, is it?

He was in his late thirties and apparently was hailed as some sort of "genius". To me, he showed symptoms of Asperger's syndrome (a mild touch on the good side of the autism spectrum).

I couldn't understand why in the world this guy was lecturing anybody. He was obviously no lecturer. He should have been working at Google, or running a "start‐up". Not lecturing kids with his snotty show‐off mentality. 

His people-skills were non‐existent, but he didn't care. Why should he? He seemed bulletproof in his job position. He was also married, and had two small children, so who could really say that the man didn't live fully?

At the end of the day, his horrible pass rates were mitigated to reflect that people could actually survive his courses.