David Ingber

Teaches at Veritas Prep

Education:
AB, Harvard

Hear from DavidWhat is your favorite quote?
"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery. I'll admit that I first encountered this quote on reddit as opposed to in some scholarly text, but it's very much the way I feel about math. If math were a boat.  

What subject did you struggle with the most in school, and how did you overcome it?
The state of Massachusetts forced me to take a class in 9th grade called Applied Tech, in which we had to build things like boxes and bridges out of magnets, toothpicks, wood, etc. I was terrible at every skill necessary at doing well in this class. I grew frustrated when I realized I couldn't "out-study" the rest of my class; I simply had to become good at a skill I did not possess. My only path to success came from going half-speed, something that did not come naturally to someone who loved to whiz through more traditional homework assignments. Doing one thing at half-speed correctly is far more effective than frenetically failing at three things. 
 
That class was where I developed my lifelong admiration of people who make things with their hands. Seriously, the next time you walk past a construction site, watch the guy smoothing out sidewalk concrete or building a perfect fence. It's fascinating. 
 
The class also sparked my love of assembling Ikea furniture.