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I got a degree in "Computer Science", but I wish I had gotten a degree in Math. You can learn programming outside of university courses, but very rarely can an

I got a degree in "Computer Science", but I wish I had gotten a degree in Math. You can learn programming outside of university courses, but very rarely can an individual pick up advanced mathematics outside of a university setting. From another angle...what companies do you want to intern at? What classes would help you get that internship? You can learn some AI and data science with Coursera - see if you like it.

Eugeleo 9y ago
That's an interesting point of view. I'm not sure I'd be able to outlast 3+ years of pure Maths, though... I like Maths, and am moderately good at it (straight As on high-school, not winning any competitions though), but doing it for so long and on such a high level might as well drive me crazy. Do you find one often needs to know advanced Math when working as a developer? (or do you do something else for a living?)
- 0x4f3759df 9y ago
  I generally don't need to know math at all. But I'm just a boring developer, I'm not working on AI or big data / data science (ie. cool stuff) But to expand on my point, I basically never use anything I learned in college. I had one semester of assembly programming where I did a little kernel programming (I don't program in assembly or mess with kernels), one semester of Java programming for data structures (ok, I use data structures but they're pretty simple to understand), one semester of c++ programming just to learn the language, etc. A mish-mash of concepts and languages. What do I need for work? These days I program in C# in Visual Studio. Great language and IDE but I didn't learn it at the university. Learning WPF, WCF, ASP MVC, etc... you just have to sit down and grind it out, its not really university learning stuff. In terms of math being hard... I think its more the case that young people are terrible students... Sit in the front of the class, take notes, form a study group!, ask questions online, learn how to learn math... I for one was not a good student, but I blame myself and my laziness and not the inherent difficulty of undergraduate math.
  - ndh2 9y ago
    I agree that most students are terrible at studying, but most teachers also suck at teaching, especially at the university level, and especially in maths.
  - Eugeleo 9y ago
    Well, if I choose CS, I'll really want to do the cool stuff! Our university offers something like AI Master's, so the required Math background will be (hopefully) provided. I don't have to major in pure Math to be somehow proficient in it.
    - 0x4f3759df 9y ago
      Well, good luck. Make sure you want to go to grad school. Too much time in the university comes at the expense of years you could use building a startup.

Eugeleo 9y ago

That's an interesting point of view. I'm not sure I'd be able to outlast 3+ years of pure Maths, though... I like Maths, and am moderately good at it (straight As on high-school, not winning any competitions though), but doing it for so long and on such a high level might as well drive me crazy. Do you find one often needs to know advanced Math when working as a developer? (or do you do something else for a living?)

0x4f3759df 9y ago
I generally don't need to know math at all. But I'm just a boring developer, I'm not working on AI or big data / data science (ie. cool stuff) But to expand on my point, I basically never use anything I learned in college. I had one semester of assembly programming where I did a little kernel programming (I don't program in assembly or mess with kernels), one semester of Java programming for data structures (ok, I use data structures but they're pretty simple to understand), one semester of c++ programming just to learn the language, etc. A mish-mash of concepts and languages. What do I need for work? These days I program in C# in Visual Studio. Great language and IDE but I didn't learn it at the university. Learning WPF, WCF, ASP MVC, etc... you just have to sit down and grind it out, its not really university learning stuff. In terms of math being hard... I think its more the case that young people are terrible students... Sit in the front of the class, take notes, form a study group!, ask questions online, learn how to learn math... I for one was not a good student, but I blame myself and my laziness and not the inherent difficulty of undergraduate math.
- ndh2 9y ago
  I agree that most students are terrible at studying, but most teachers also suck at teaching, especially at the university level, and especially in maths.
- Eugeleo 9y ago
  Well, if I choose CS, I'll really want to do the cool stuff! Our university offers something like AI Master's, so the required Math background will be (hopefully) provided. I don't have to major in pure Math to be somehow proficient in it.
  - 0x4f3759df 9y ago
    Well, good luck. Make sure you want to go to grad school. Too much time in the university comes at the expense of years you could use building a startup.