"Besides a mathematical inclination, an exceptionally good mastery of one's native tongue is the most vital asset of a competent programmer." -- Edsger Dijkstra

"Besides a mathematical inclination, an exceptionally good mastery of one's native tongue is the most vital asset of a competent programmer." -- Edsger Dijkstra As a programmer coming from a linguistics background, this sentiment has always resonated with me. As much as math is a part of my job, recognizing the transferrable skills from human language use has probably been the primary reason that I've been able to land programming jobs and write fairly successful code.