4 ms·

Could you elaborate on what you mean when you say are a scientist and there are many programmers who are not scientists?

• npsimons 14y ago
  Could you elaborate on what you mean when you say are a scientist and there are many programmers who are not scientists? I presume he's talking about people who probably shouldn't be programming (those that routinely write code the likes of which show up on thedailywtf.com; you know, stuff that assigns variables multiple times in a row). Apart from that, it's also telling that even most "computer scientists" don't know much outside of programming, even for the domains they work in. I count myself lucky that I get to work with people who have PhDs in basic sciences on a daily basis; just keeping up in work discussions requires delving into some really interesting science papers and books. Granted, I couldn't write you Dijkstra's algorithm right away, but that's why I keep the CLR book around.
  • loxs 14y ago
    Correct. I am talking about people who are not very good at logic and scientific reasoning. People who know how things "are" (because someone taught them so in the university) and don't care why. People who blindly follow "design patterns" and use their "hammer", regardless of the screw they are trying to deal with. People who say "I only learned Pascal at school. Let's use that for the problem at hand" (No offence to Pascal and people using it). People who know the Java standard libraries by heart (and have an excellent diploma because of that), but can't produce a simple working program, because they lack understanding of the nature of computing. The above are real examples of people I have worked with.