> ...many developers... simply do not have the mathematical background... for reasons which are usually out of their control... > ...sleep-walked through their

> ...many developers... simply do not have the mathematical background... for reasons which are usually out of their control... > ...sleep-walked through their calc/analysis courses... I think you both identified the problem and shot down your argument in one breath here. Self taught developers can probably be forgiven for not knowing what big O is, right up until the point where someone asks them about it, and they say "what's big O?" After that, nothing prevents anybody from cracking a book or going on the internet to figure it out.