Ask HN: Did studying proof based math topics make you a better programmer? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Did studying proof based math topics make you a better programmer?

#51

Post by NoZebra120vClip » Sun, Jun 25, 2023, 11:36 AM UTC

epgui wrote: post #50

000ooo000 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A developer can barely need maths and also benefit from an understanding of maths at the same time. Unsure what your point is, if not just to dunk on programmers without math backgrounds.

To be clear, I don’t have a math background beyond a handful of undergrad classes (I studied biochem). I just really despise the anti-intellectual attitude of “YAGNI” applied to maths.

What's more anti-intellectual, me explaining why someone might use math as an SWE and what I chose to study instead, or you telling me that I'm "unaware or ignorant" of things I'm quite familiar with?

Re: Ask HN: Did studying proof based math topics make you a better programmer?

#52

Post by injb » Sun, Jun 25, 2023, 12:46 PM UTC

BeetleB wrote: post #49

injb wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>> Doing programming forces you to think rigorously. Would that it were so! But alas a lot of software is happy-path only because many programmers don't tend to think mathematically. In contrast mathematical proofs tend to be absolutely bullet proof. I can only assume that the mathematician who wrote the quote in your footnote was talking about maths notation vs computer language syntax. In that narrow sense, yes pr…

> In contrast mathematical proofs tend to be absolutely bullet proof. They really, really do not. It's why an initial proof of the four coloring theorem was believed for a decade before a flaw was discovered. History has quite a few examples of proofs believed to be correct for years that turned out to be flawed. Read the quotes from William Thurston's essay in the comment I linked to. I've spent time with profession…

>>> History has quite a few examples of proofs believed to be correct for years that turned out to be flawed.

>>> I've seen estimates as high as a third of papers have an error.

That is pretty much what I meant by "tend" to be right. If only a third of all the software out there had "an error" that would be a dramatic improvement.

Re: Ask HN: Did studying proof based math topics make you a better programmer?

#53

Post by ekm2 » Sun, Jun 25, 2023, 8:22 PM UTC

williamstein wrote: post #21

I received a Ph.D. in pure math (number theory) from Berkeley, and then worked as an academic mathematician for 20 years, so wrote a few dozen research papers and some books. My ability to write software for doing mathematics was obviously better as a result of studying mathematics, e.g., I started SageMath ( https://sagemath.org ) and wrote a big chunk of it. Now I mostly do full stack web development (I have goals…

You did a PhD in number theory,but you are recommending group theory and abstract algebra?

Re: Ask HN: Did studying proof based math topics make you a better programmer?

#54

Post by bordercases » Mon, Jun 26, 2023, 4:04 PM UTC

ekm2 wrote: post #53

williamstein wrote: post #21

I received a Ph.D. in pure math (number theory) from Berkeley, and then worked as an academic mathematician for 20 years, so wrote a few dozen research papers and some books. My ability to write software for doing mathematics was obviously better as a result of studying mathematics, e.g., I started SageMath ( https://sagemath.org ) and wrote a big chunk of it. Now I mostly do full stack web development (I have goals…

You did a PhD in number theory,but you are recommending group theory and abstract algebra?

They overlap in part because the latter two topics are used to abstract over any mathematics.