132
linuxxx
6y

Never let anyone make you believe that just because you don't have a specific skill which is 'required' for your dream job/a job you really want, you won't be able to reach it.

I've heard countless times that I could never do anything with programming/linux (server) engineering because I'm freaking bad at maths. They always said it was a requirement to understand it in order to become good at those two things.

Except for a few simple tests with 'okay' marks, I never got a good grade for it and failed it entirely at every school.

Guess who's a programmer (free time) and a professional linuxer right now!

It just pisses me off when people tell someone that because they don't possess a skill, they won't be able to make it to what they would love to do.

Comments
  • 33
    People love to tell people off :/ I guess because they never did something themselfes. And in their brain it's like 'it cant be my fault, everything else sucks'.

    And even if you can not do it yet, doesn't mean you are not able to learn it. Nobody is good at something at first.
  • 12
    Ya never listen to that shit, for me I think of it that way:
    No one is better than me, they just worked hard, trained a lot and reached their point, if I work hard on what I want to reach, I'm sure I'll get there one day

    Though sometimes I feel down seeing all those pros that literally invented half the things we use and I think, will I ever reach their level (not saying soon, but lets say when I reach 40 for example)
  • 14
    It's the same with job adds. Companies may list X tecnologies you should have mastered for Y years. You may feel that they'd never hire you. But come on, what they are writing is more like a wish list. If they like you as a person and see potential in you to grow, they'll probably hire you. Plus if they use all that technology, you probably can learn a lot! So just write an application. Sure they can say no. But so what? Just try it!
  • 12
    As a kid I've been told that i can't keep up if i wanted to study computer science cause my math marks weren't good enough
    So i had to apply to electronics as an engineer

    GUESS WHO HAS THE SECOND BEST MARKS IN BACHELOR MATH AND IS NOW A DEVELOPER ENGINEER ALTOGETHER

    TAKE THAT PEOPLE!

    still cause of that i could get my hand on two professions
  • 6
    I never could understand why people say you have to be good with math to work in IT. While it does help it's not a requirement by any means
  • 2
    Numbers aren't intuitive for me. I use a calculator to make change most times. But yet I've been able to grok and implement complicated math in a game engine from-scratch. It may take me more time than some know-it-all college grad, but I make up for it in spades in other areas, like knowing the language inside and out.

    Everyone has a role, nobody is the "smartest" because everyone is really good at something special, and suck at most other things. Pair yourself with someone who is great with math and you make an excellent team. I left animation & quaternion math to a teammate and implemented it together. Works great :-D
  • 2
    Yeah, I'm also bad at the mathematics. I personally see this as an opportunity, as the entire utility and purpose of computers is to perform math operations for us. A great number of the apps I write display sophisticated tabular representations of the results of hundreds, if not thousands of mathematic operations.

    I know how they work, but the computer is much, much better at them than me, so I just let the computer do it.
  • 2
    It's time we properly debunk this myth of decent programming necessarily having anything to do with being good at math. Math was a hard, tedious process for me to understand growing up. Programming has never been this way for me, and during my CS degree I almost only took away A's, whereas I'd struggle for years to even pass math. The procedural nature of programming comes much more natural to me than mathematical expressions and symbols. Objects related to real world counterparts, and I was able to actually be creative with my solutions.

    If I had started out with programming, and then moved on to math, I can almost guarantee I would've had a smoother learning experience.
  • 2
    Also this girl I used to know kept saying that I probably wouldn't reach anything with my 'bs' hobbies (linux/programming) but especially with my privacy and security stuffs.

    I'd just love to run into her today, her asking how far I've come and just show her this linuxxx thingy, the blog I run and my job.

    Look at me now!
  • 1
    Einstein was bad at maths and eventually one of the greatest physicians of all time. He still sucked at maths and formulations so he had a guy who made formulas out of his hypothesis and theories but everyone knows Einstein, not the guy who is good at formulas and maths.

    I am a self thought programmer, musician, barista and etc and can make my money out of any of it even though I'm not certified by someone.
  • 1
    When I was younger I had people tell me that because I left school with mediocre GCSEs and joined the army I’d never be able to achieve anything meaningful with computers.

    It was hard work, but 4 years after leaving the army I’m in my first Dev role as an sql Developer.

    I admit that getting here wasn’t easy, I had some crappy it support roles and spent a lot of time studying but it paid off.

    In my experience, the people that normally say this are the ones who are afraid to makes changes and want everyone to be as miserable as them.
  • 1
    This is very motivational and really makes me less nervous, I'll be studying for something in the same category as what you do, I'm not really that good at math either, but if I want to, I believe I could learn it, if it was necessary. Thank you, you just made my day :-)
  • 0
    I can definitely relate, mostly because of struggling with a school system not made for people with ADD, but also from fighting severe depression. This has left me way behind my peers as I never got to finish the regular secondary school, which I am currently working on making up for. I know I'll never have a complete secondary education, but I'm still planning on getting into a university program to become a game development engineer. :) I'm lucky to have the genes of being too stubborn to take a no for an answer. (Ironically though, I don't seem to have much problems with math for some reason.)
  • 0
    People will tell you your ass is too big for you to sit down. They'll tell you anything as long as it makes you doubt yourself. Too bad we still believe that stuff even though the world holds countless examples of people who were told and even believed they were nothing turn into greatness. You can do anything if you put your heart and mind into it. Leave your ass out of it
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