Algebra.
http://codeup.com/can-a-simple-algebra-test-predict-programm...
Previous hn discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8741868
Ask HN: How can I tell if I have programming aptitude?
31–40 of 102 posts
Re: Ask HN: How can I tell if I have programming aptitude?
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly, this is THE question! Even if you were somehow very good at programming but you hatted it, would you choose it as a job? I'd drop it immediately, don't waste your precious time on it. This leaves one other option: If you loved it more than any other job but you sucked at it, what would you do? I'd say: Do yourself a favor and find a job where you do what you love. If you prove my advice to be bad, you'd be t…
"Even if you were somehow very good at programming but you hated it, would you choose it as a job? I'd drop it immediately, don't waste your precious time on it." Not everyone has that choice, as making a living and doing what you love are sometimes mutually exclusive. Casey Neistat washed dishes before he got into making viral videos. Einstein worked as a patent clerk. Dreamtheater's Mike Mangini worked in IT to pay…
did Einstein hate being a patent clerk?
Re: Ask HN: How can I tell if I have programming aptitude?
#33I read a study a while ago that addressed this exact problem - a CS professor gave an intro class a test on CS. The students who had a consistent view of how a computer works (no matter if it was wrong or not) turned into programmers. Everyone else failed. There was essentially no movement between the groups.
That study was retracted by the author, who now deeply regrets it. See here: http://retractionwatch.com/2014/07/18/the-camel-doesnt-have-....
Re: Ask HN: How can I tell if I have programming aptitude?
#34I think it's probably something that's hard to assess like that. I've been learning to program on-and-off for about 2 years. It's only through sheer bloody-minded persistence that it is starting to see the pieces fall into place.
There's plenty of different types of software development too; some require a stronger programming ability than others. If you enjoy solving problems, and making life easier for other people, then it's something you'll get to eventually with enough persistence.
Re: Ask HN: How can I tell if I have programming aptitude?
#35Do you enjoy programming? If so, you will be good at programming. If not, you most likely won't.
And just rememeber: Just as long as you have once enjoyed it you are good.
Once you start being serious about it there might be bad days or weeks as in any other profession.
Re: Ask HN: How can I tell if I have programming aptitude?
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just found it: http://www.eis.mdx.ac.uk/research/PhDArea/saeed/paper1.pdf
This study is biased toward students who already knew CS before taking the class, which is a substantial number. If someone can explain how this methodology makes sense, I'll start to buy the argument. People used to say women were less likely to have a "natural ability" at CS, despite the huge amounts of seminal CS work that women did in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. That changed when the Apple II came out, and it was mark…
The study was retracted by the author. He has said that he was wrong and that the paper was wrong.
Re: Ask HN: How can I tell if I have programming aptitude?
#37Here's a little story that I tell to anyone who asks me this question. It's how I got it answered for me a long time ago.
> How can I tell if I have programming aptitude?
I have a friend who's a painter. She's a visual artist with a fair deal of success; she can actually live out of her art (and by that I mean she actually sells her paintings for a living, she doesn't just design logos to buy her a little time for her real occupation on Friday evenings).
We were gathered at her house for a gig and waiting for the guitarist to show up (as usual), and while we were each rehearsing various bits and pieces, she sat on an armchair across from me and casually picked up a piece she had almost finished, and began applying some finishing touches. I'd never seen her painting before, so after I picked up my jaw from the floor, I passingly remarked that I'm a little envious on anyone who has a talent for drawing.
(Background: my depth perception is basically shit because of a limp eye. The only reasonable drawings I ever made where in Geometry classes).
Her reply was along the lines of dude, look, the ones who have a talent for this are the likes of Picasso and el Greco. Everyone else, even those of us who paint a lot better than anyone else you can find on the street, just practiced a lot.
She then proceeded to show me a couple of things she had drawn when she was a kid, long before she decided she wanted to do that for a living. Surely enough, they looked much like any other kid's drawings. They were a little less "hurried", as she obviously loved doing it and spent more time on a drawing, but were otherwise indistinguishable from other childrens' drawings. Even later ones, from around the time when she had decided she really liked this, weren't exactly breathtaking.
tl;dr: You have the "programmer aptitude" if:
a) You're a frickin' genius who can talk to computers as if they were kindred spirits, but then I guess you wouldn't be asking this if you were, or b) You like programming enough that you can do a lot of it, and can tolerate spending that time looking at your programs with a critical eye and seeing where you failed and what you can improve.
The pitfall in b) is that it will consistently make you feel like a failure, but hey, that's life man.
Re: Ask HN: How can I tell if I have programming aptitude?
#38Do you enjoy programming? If so, you will be good at programming. If not, you most likely won't.
I enjoy programming, but not the slow / invisible result like any enterprise application, where you'll only see modules / sub-modules updated & no visible change...
What I actually love is scripting / automating repetitive tasks... Still programming, but somewhat different in satisfaction (for me anyway)
Re: Ask HN: How can I tell if I have programming aptitude?
#39Do you check the stove 3,4 times when leaving the house? Are you sometimes anxious, that you didn't properly shut the door after haveng left the house? I have this theory where people who do these things are good programmers, since they will check their commit a lot of times until it is perfect to push. But maybe this is more about mastery than having an aptitude for it. :)
> Do you check the stove 3,4 times when leaving the house? Are you sometimes anxious, that you didn't properly shut the door after haveng left the house?
You might have OCD.
Re: Ask HN: How can I tell if I have programming aptitude?
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Even if you were somehow very good at programming but you hated it, would you choose it as a job? I'd drop it immediately, don't waste your precious time on it." Not everyone has that choice, as making a living and doing what you love are sometimes mutually exclusive. Casey Neistat washed dishes before he got into making viral videos. Einstein worked as a patent clerk. Dreamtheater's Mike Mangini worked in IT to pay…
did Einstein hate being a patent clerk?
"He spoke of the patent office as «a worldly cloister where he hatched his most beautiful ideas»"
source: https://www.ige.ch/en/about-us/einstein/einstein-at-the-pate...
Take that as you will.