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I really wish I hadn't taken AP Calculus in high school. I sort of got it, but it wasn't intense enough to really grab me and my study habits were non-existent.

by ahi 7y ago

I really wish I hadn't taken AP Calculus in high school. I sort of got it, but it wasn't intense enough to really grab me and my study habits were non-existent. I took multi-variable calculus as a freshman and was mostly in over my head despite my B+/A- (thanks curve!), and that was it for me and math. Definitely contributes to my impostor syndrome when doing anything more computer sciencey than a CRUD app.

non-entity 7y ago
I took AP calc in high school, but paid 0 attention and basically plugged all problems into a solver and passed with a mediocre grade. I didn't even end up going to school after that. > Definitely contributes to my impostor syndrome when doing anything more computer sciencey than a CRUD app. Agreed, I've started working on low level side projects that involve more math and theory and often find I kicking myself for not caring in school and not furthering my education
- commandlinefan 7y ago
  Well, it’s never too late, you know! I stumbled through my own CS degree putting as little effort into the math classes as possible - I saw them as a roadblock/filter I had to get through rather than anything particularly useful. Then, a few years after graduation I was doing some graphics work and I had to create a block arrow that could orient itself in any direction. I started working through the calculations to determine the slope of a line and the slope of the perpendicular line and I kept thinking, “man, I know I learned this in algebra, I sure wish I remembered any of it…”. So I picked up a used algebra textbook and read through it and worked some examples until I understood it. I’ve been re-making my way back up through my math education that way on and off for years (I’m up to differential equations now) and it’s actually sort of pleasant since I can take as long as I want or just put it away and come back to it later when I feel like it. I get some odd glances from people when I pull out a calculus textbook (“are you taking a class or something?”), but I understand it all _way_ better than I ever did as an undergraduate. Plus which, I’m able to help my kids with their math homework because all this stuff is actually fresh in my mind.
0xffff2 7y ago
I do a whole lot of stuff "more computer sciencey than a CRUD app", and I took a whole lot of calclus thanks to my computer engineering degree. I absolutely never use it. You need calculus to design a transistor. So far, I've yet to run into a situation where I need calculus to write code unless the code is literally solving a calc problem, which comes up incredible infrequently.
- dboreham 7y ago
  You need Bose Einstein Statistical Mechanics (or QM or...) to design a transistor.
- commandlinefan 7y ago
  > I've yet to run into a situation where I need calculus Actually, gradient descent and Lagrange multipliers come up quite a bit in machine learning. Of course, you can just apply them without understanding them just like you can apply the graphics formulas for rotational motion without understanding them, but when something does go wrong, it sure helps to understand the principles behind them.
- 2sk21 7y ago
  Linear algebra and calculus are an essential part of machine learning. I use my knowledge of these topics almost daily

by ahi 7y ago

non-entity 7y ago

I took AP calc in high school, but paid 0 attention and basically plugged all problems into a solver and passed with a mediocre grade. I didn't even end up going to school after that. > Definitely contributes to my impostor syndrome when doing anything more computer sciencey than a CRUD app. Agreed, I've started working on low level side projects that involve more math and theory and often find I kicking myself for not caring in school and not furthering my education

commandlinefan 7y ago
Well, it’s never too late, you know! I stumbled through my own CS degree putting as little effort into the math classes as possible - I saw them as a roadblock/filter I had to get through rather than anything particularly useful. Then, a few years after graduation I was doing some graphics work and I had to create a block arrow that could orient itself in any direction. I started working through the calculations to determine the slope of a line and the slope of the perpendicular line and I kept thinking, “man, I know I learned this in algebra, I sure wish I remembered any of it…”. So I picked up a used algebra textbook and read through it and worked some examples until I understood it. I’ve been re-making my way back up through my math education that way on and off for years (I’m up to differential equations now) and it’s actually sort of pleasant since I can take as long as I want or just put it away and come back to it later when I feel like it. I get some odd glances from people when I pull out a calculus textbook (“are you taking a class or something?”), but I understand it all _way_ better than I ever did as an undergraduate. Plus which, I’m able to help my kids with their math homework because all this stuff is actually fresh in my mind.

0xffff2 7y ago

I do a whole lot of stuff "more computer sciencey than a CRUD app", and I took a whole lot of calclus thanks to my computer engineering degree. I absolutely never use it. You need calculus to design a transistor. So far, I've yet to run into a situation where I need calculus to write code unless the code is literally solving a calc problem, which comes up incredible infrequently.

dboreham 7y ago
You need Bose Einstein Statistical Mechanics (or QM or...) to design a transistor.
commandlinefan 7y ago
> I've yet to run into a situation where I need calculus Actually, gradient descent and Lagrange multipliers come up quite a bit in machine learning. Of course, you can just apply them without understanding them just like you can apply the graphics formulas for rotational motion without understanding them, but when something does go wrong, it sure helps to understand the principles behind them.
2sk21 7y ago
Linear algebra and calculus are an essential part of machine learning. I use my knowledge of these topics almost daily