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A friend just asked if I could get him an internship at the place I work. He has no computer/programming background at all but how hard could developing be.
So I informed him my CS degree required at least 7 math courses lowest being calculus.
You need to know math!?!?
Yeah we're the one who writes the programs that actually does the math for everyone else

Comments
  • 7
    Wait? I need to know more than a calculator and how to use Google?
  • 23
    Yea, that's bollox. You don't need to know/be good at maths to code. It helps if you are good at maths as the skills in logic and problem solving and having a certain way of thinking all transfer over to programming but that doesn't mean that you should need to do maths courses to get started or that you will be using any real form of maths/mental arithmetic when doing so. When was the last time you had to actually code any true mathematics. Even if you work in calculation heavy software, you don't sit there and do the actual maths do you? You just tell the computer what to do and it works it out for you. That association to me puts up an artificial barrier to entry that is just unnecessary.
  • 1
    @ALivingMemory Agreed. My CS degree is only requiring Discrete Mathematics and Calculus. Most of my classes have been coding focused.
  • 1
    I always thought they made us take all of those math classes for our sanity...I friggin loved calc 1, 2 and 3! 😃
  • 1
    @ALivingMemory Well, it should be damn obvious, otherwise I'll state it: You must know what you're doing so you can do it right.

    Don't get me wrong, some coders don't rely on advanced calculus to align a div, but some others must know that math so they can work with it, maybe not doing it, but knowing how it works and how to check if it's right, that helps them to ease their workflow.

    So, if you're going to spend your life coding websites, surely you won't need to know calculus (unless you're the one coding a client-based calculus app)
  • 4
    I work for one of the biggest dev companies in the US...

    I don't have a degree.
  • 4
    @ALivingMemory At my job there's a lot of math involved for the machinery.
    But it was mainly a quicker way to get across the mindset of the job and what it entails. He was thinking he could just walk in and figure it out and just needed to learn what buttons to push. Not no we actually program the computer.... And I was kinda irritated he thought my job didn't require any knowledge or real training.
    Main point was no computer or programming background whatsoever. Best guy at my workplace has no degree so I know you don't need it. But it's not an easy job
  • 0
    This has been my biggest and most aggravating barrier to entry for the computer programming world. Dyscalculia is a bitch and makes it near impossible for me to advance past a basic algebra level, despite having aggressively practiced and trained my logic and problem solving skills.
  • 2
    Seriously, I've always failed for math big time but I'm (i think) a pretty good backend dev
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