3 ms·

Definitely pure math. I spent a ton of time in college studying linear algebra and abstract algebra, and I remember very little of it. The issue with the advanc

Definitely pure math. I spent a ton of time in college studying linear algebra and abstract algebra, and I remember very little of it. The issue with the advanced classes is that the time investment is enormous (1 class took more time than 4 others combined), and they're not worth doing halfway. I think if I'd stuck to computer science, I would have graduated a stronger programmer, and if I'd taken more sociology/art classes, I would have had more fun. A lot of people talk about beauty in math, but the beauty part of it never clicked for me the way it did for art. I think there's a sterility about proofs and numbers. If you don't love pure math, you will grow to hate it.

ryandrake 7y ago
For all the starry-eyed love that math gets here, I’m glad it’s (currently) 2 out of the top 3 voted responses. Throughout a so far 20 year career in tech spanning device drivers, 3D graphics, video, maps, and location/GPS, the highest math I’ve really had to apply was high school trigonometry and some matrix math. I’m sure some programmers use graph theory and differential equations all the time, but they’re probably not plumbing one API to another or copying JSON around all day like the rest of us do. > I think if I'd stuck to computer science, I would have graduated a stronger programmer I took the minimum math needed to graduate with a comp eng undergrad degree (which imho was still way too much) and I agree with you, I’m probably a better general purpose programmer for it.