I've wondered that too. My conclusion is that it's mostly coming from folks who aren't distinguishing between something like elegance as a mathematical work and effective pedagogy.
The first person I met singing its praises was a hardcore linux guy who insisted on doing every task through a terminal with emacs—and this doesn't surprise me. I feel like there's a similar aesthetic at play here, and maybe a bit of fear that doing anything but the toughest option will make them weak (choosing these things on their own would be insufficient for that conclusion—but it often comes with a kind of scoffing attitude toward the 'lesser' options).
The logic behind toughest = most effective is a little confusing to me. Sure, grit has its uses in intellectual work, but getting effective instruction and building a solid foundation of concepts seems like it would outweigh it.
I'm from Australia. My theory is that of the subset of people that are interested in both computer science and math, a significant portion use linux and if you use linux, then emacs is the best LaTeX editor (auctex and reftex are amazing). And "doing everything in emacs" is just what naturally happens when you use emacs long enough.
The first person I met singing its praises was a hardcore linux guy who insisted on doing every task through a terminal with emacs—and this doesn't surprise me. I feel like there's a similar aesthetic at play here, and maybe a bit of fear that doing anything but the toughest option will make them weak (choosing these things on their own would be insufficient for that conclusion—but it often comes with a kind of scoffing attitude toward the 'lesser' options).
The logic behind toughest = most effective is a little confusing to me. Sure, grit has its uses in intellectual work, but getting effective instruction and building a solid foundation of concepts seems like it would outweigh it.