60
Mathematicians and software (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/programming@programming.dev
29 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

It is often echoed that mathematicians make excellent software engineers, and that their logic-adjacent work will translate efficiently into coding and designing.

I have found this to be almost universally untrue. I might even say the inverse is true.

While I and many of my peers have capacity to navigate the mathematical world, it certainly is not what sets us (at least me) apart when designing clever algorithms and software tricks.

Point being: I dont think the property/trait that makes good programmers is mathematical literacy.

I would love to hear what others experience is regarding this.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [S] 1 point 2 years ago (2 children)

Interesting. Im curious, what are some key areas of math that you think is the most interesting/useful for software engineering (that you would personally recommend learning)?

I will likely have some spare time in the following months and i currently plan to spend it on deepening my senses related to linear algebra and analysis.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    Yeah, I think you're already on the right path with that, those are good basics for anything computer science related (and usually required classes if you take CS in college). Perhaps add Numerical Analysis to that list.

    Also, Operations Research has some interesting optimization algorithms, and Statistics is useful for anything related to Machine Learning.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    I majored in math and have so far a great career in software. I don’t think knowing math separates me out from CS grads generally. However, math majors largely chose to major in Math because we like problem solving. Plenty of CS grads major in CS because they are expected to. Being a passionate problem solver gets you pretty far.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent