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The tough part here is "every programmer should know" as there are very few universal "Must Knows". Much of CS theory is math so there is a lot to be said for
by mathattack 11y ago
The tough part here is "every programmer should know" as there are very few universal "Must Knows". Much of CS theory is math so there is a lot to be said for "You're learning Math whether you think so or not."
Some general comments on math topics:
Partial Differential Equations - Useful for financial technology and engineering applications.
Statistics - Extremely useful in financial technology and marketing applications. (A/B testing, etc) Also good for having an informed worldview.
Regression Analysis - Same as Statistics, though less important for having an informed worldview.
Logic - Whether you call it Philosophy or Math, it's useful in hardware, formal verification, and general thinking.
Linear Algebra - Good for financial technology and machine learning.
Set Theory - Good for understanding databases.
Number Theory - Useful for cryptography.
Graph Theory - Great for networking, and algorithm thinking in general.
Theory of Functions - Good for understanding recursion (LISP, Scheme, etc) and functional programming.
Does anyone need to know all of this? No, but learning the math behind whatever niche you choose will make your intuition and thinking stronger. I think Stats is the only general purpose math that everyone should understand as part of being a critical thinker.
- chris_wot 11y agoLogic and set theory are intertwined.
- BasDirks 11y agoSet theory and everything are intertwined.
- ska 11y agoCategorically.
- mathattack 11y agoA lot of these are. One beauty of math is ideas from one part percolate into others.
- chris_wot 11y agoI'm not disagreeing :-( I just found it useful when I was studying discrete mathematics that set theory is a branch of logic. Knowing logic before you study set theory means you have a solid conceptual foundation to aid your understanding.
- rshaban 11y ago... most of these are intertwined. Is there more significance to your comment, or is it just a nitpick?
- chris_wot 11y agoMaybe I was unclear. Technically set theory is a branch of logic - I found that very useful to understand when I was studying discrete mathematics, and later when I was trying to understand the relational database model. Yes, most of math is intertwined, however in the examples given above its just useful (at least in my mind) to know the how set theory fits into the larger branch of logic. It appears that folks are seeing an attack/criticism in my post, probably because it was fairly succinct. Nothing could be further from the truth actually, the list I responded to is quite insightful - and I upvoted it!