Obviously?

Obviously
adverb
1. in a way that is easy to understand; evidently
2. without subtlety
3. (sentence modifier) it is obvious that; clearly

Thanks to my friends at Collins English Dictionary for the definition.

So I'm sitting in my math class, trying to figure out what my professor is saying, in his accent, and the implications of what he's saying. We're going over the epsilon delta definition of a limit, a difficult concept to understand. "Wee well obviously choos a epseelon eequel to 1, to satisfy deltah." After that, I was done taking notes. I was just going to read the textbook. (Not the smartest move on my part)

I still don't have a concrete understanding of it. But I can understand him a little bit better. Progress.

I'm not quite sure how common it is for professors to say obviously or of course, but I imagine you've experienced it before. I think I may be able to begin to clear up the frustration by laying out the role of the professor and the role of the student.

The professor's role is to teach (interesting article from CMU), do research and contribute to the college community. The professor organizes old knowledge to teach it to their classes. The professor compiles and analyzes new results from their own research and adds it into the big picture of their subject.  Without the professor, there wouldn't be anyone to analyze their own specialized results. The professor is also to be a role model in the way they behave (New York Times). Influencing students to be studious and well-mannered.

The role of the student is to learn and to develop their skills and knowledge about themselves (Dr. Louis Joughin). This knowledge is then to be applied to something greater than themselves.

via GIPHY

We're done with the boring part!

Professors think their subjects are easy (at an introductory level). And they should. They've dedicated their entire lives to their subjects. Students on the other hand are in the class to learn. If I thought everything being taught in the class were obvious I would obviously be in a different class where I could learn. ARRRRRRGGGGH!

via GIPHY

Its as frustrating as...

But hey, maybe I'm interpreting it wrong. Maybe he was holding the class to such a high standard that he already expected us to have a general idea about the information.

Either way it wasn't a very good use of the word obviously.

Bad use of obviously:
"Coldplay fans are the best in the world. If you like Coldplay then you're obviously very intelligent and good looking and all-around brilliant." - Chris Martin

That's really not apparent. I mean listen to this. The first 13 seconds don't agree with me.

Good use of obviously: none

I don't think anything is really obvious. No one understands everything in the exact same way. Something that's easy for one person can be really difficult for another person.

Food for thought. (I hope)