Being Right

Do you know how hard it is to back down when you know you're right. Not quite as hard as it is to back down the second time.

Lets start with what the disagreement was about - a question on the quiz in my database processing class. He was testing on whether we read the text, and not on whether we understood it. The question?

Which of the following is not a functional Functional Determinant?

The possible answers don't really matter, because there was actually *no* right answer, but the answer he had as the correct answer was "equations" based on the fact that he had highlighted from reading the textbook the section heading:

Functional Determinants are not Equations.

Unfortunately, he actually misread the heading which was:

Functional Determinants that are not Equations.(emphasis mine)

I know that this is a technical class, but if you're testing on if we read the material - you should read it correctly yourself.

Mostly though, I object to receiving a 5 minute lecture in front of everyone about why I was wrong based on a fallacious argument - that equations are not functional determinants because it's a bad idea to have them as functional determinants. Especially when I agree that it's a bad idea, it just wasn't the question he was asking.