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I've had a few interesting conversations with fellow IT students recently. One, a very multi-lingual individual, said he wasn't picking any programming modules
by Tycho 17y ago
I've had a few interesting conversations with fellow IT students recently. One, a very multi-lingual individual, said he wasn't picking any programming modules because 'as soon as the dots and dashes start coming out, forget it, it all looks like Greek to me.' During a lecture on research a slide of statistical formulas came up, and it all looked like Greek to me. In fact, it was Greek (Greek alphabet). This got me thinking that maybe my aversion to maths is needless - if I can program, shouldn't I be able to learn new mathematic techniques too?
My next conversation was with someone who used to be a maths teacher, held a maths degree, yet seriously struggled with the programming coursework, even though she thought her maths would make it easy. I was surprised too. I suggested that maths only seems easy to her because of the extensive schooling one gets in arithmetic from an early age; she suggested it was because programming was 'a male way of thinking' (!).
What's the link between maths and programming as skills? I mean, is maths the 'source code of reality' - just like code with unhelpful variable names? Or is it really a different kettle of fish. I did well in maths at school... I just hated it. Trying to make sense of the mathematical notation in Wirth's 'Algorithms and Data Structures' reminds me why I hated it.
- nzmsv 17y agoI think mathematical notation is a big part of it. It just seems optimized for writing, not reading, and especially not teaching. Feynman talks about inventing his own notation in his autobiography. He then had to give it up, because he had to communicate with other people. Reading that made me abandon thoughts of doing the same, and realize I'm not the only one having trouble with it.
- yequalsx 17y agoWell, another aspect is that there is so much information conveyed with a mathematical statement. Consider the distributive property: a (b+c) = ab + ac It's quite simple but has some major consequences. These consequences aren't obvious either until someone acquires the skill at being able to understand what a formula really is saying. For instance, the distributive property is why x - 3x is the same as -2x It takes most people a bit of effort and time to understand this though.
- roundsquare 17y agoshe suggested it was because programming was 'a male way of thinking' (!). I suspect people thought that about math at some point as well...