How you eat corn on the cob predicts whether you're an analyst or algebraist • Hacker News Board

Re: How you eat corn on the cob predicts whether you're an analyst or algebraist

#51

Post by acqq » Sat, Aug 11, 2012, 10:43 AM UTC

simonbrown wrote: post #45

MaysonL wrote: post #29

A much better split than Yegge's.

What was Yegge's split?

Liberal vs. Conservative:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4365255

I agree with MaysonL.

Re: How you eat corn on the cob predicts whether you're an analyst or algebraist

#52

Post by gpmcadam » Sat, Aug 11, 2012, 11:03 AM UTC

I buy corn in a can and heat it quickly in a microwave.

Not the tastiest, but it's quick and it gets the job done.

And yes, I'm a PHP programmer.

Re: How you eat corn on the cob predicts whether you're an analyst or algebraist

#53

Post by mebassett » Sat, Aug 11, 2012, 12:06 PM UTC

pirateking wrote: post #38

rdtsc wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Statistics?

A large portion of my math courses in school were Statistics courses (as they were requirements). Spending 4 weeks learning how to use R every single class got old quick. The actual meat of the topics could have been more interesting with a proper approach. My favorite topics that I have messed with so far are probably Number Theory and Logic. Pointers to resources or book recommendations welcome.

I very much enjoyed and learned from Ireland & Rosen's "A classical invitation to modern number theory". "Number Fields" by Marcus is also good, but that focuses more on the algebraic side of number theory.

Re: How you eat corn on the cob predicts whether you're an analyst or algebraist

#54

Post by radicalbyte » Sat, Aug 11, 2012, 12:46 PM UTC

m_for_monkey wrote: post #42

radicalbyte wrote: post #40

I prefer to eat my corn-on-the-cob quickly, with lots of butter and salt, whilst making as much mess as I can. It's one of the few meals where its' socially acceptable to eat like a pig :)

BASIC programmer?

Basic, ASM (6510), VB, Java, PHP, Javascript, C# and several dialects of SQL. With occasional forays into Ruby, Python and C.

I'm not had formal training in Mathematics beyond High School, though I've worked my way though introductory texts to Calculus (single variable), Linear Algebra and Discrete Mathematics (thanks in a large part to reading Yegge's rants and being inspired to learn by the exceptionally smart people on HN - really, I now wish I'd pursued Mathematics further, was in the top 5% at high school but didn't enjoy it).

Re: How you eat corn on the cob predicts whether you're an analyst or algebraist

#55

Post by Sniffnoy » Sat, Aug 11, 2012, 1:00 PM UTC

I'm very confused by the idea that OOP would be considered somehow more "algebraic". Functional programming seems way more algebraic to me. I mean, writing Haskell seems about as algebraic as programming gets even without using monads or other such very-high-level abstractions. Also, odd where he puts emacs/vi compared to where he puts programming languages, considering that emacs uses Lisp. (FWIW, I prefer algebra, and I tend to eat corn in patches.)

Re: How you eat corn on the cob predicts whether you're an analyst or algebraist

#56

Post by mhb » Sat, Aug 11, 2012, 1:05 PM UTC

By spiral do the mathematicians mean helix?

Re: How you eat corn on the cob predicts whether you're an analyst or algebraist

#57

Post by fferen » Sat, Aug 11, 2012, 1:34 PM UTC

tel wrote: post #30

I eat my corn in rings, fix a z and then scrape through theta before choosing the next z. It's efficient and it sort-of follows the cornkernel grid. I'm also more of a statistician who edits in vi and emacs every day and I'm challenging myself with some category theory and abstract algebra because I find it intoxicating. So, I don't have a clue how to fit into this divide.

I eat it this way too, but everything in the article about spirals fits me well (even the C++ template metaprogramming).

Re: How you eat corn on the cob predicts whether you're an analyst or algebraist

#58

Post by Gring » Sat, Aug 11, 2012, 1:34 PM UTC

Apparently Mickey and Donald are algebraists :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMD1fTQGego&feature=playe...

Re: How you eat corn on the cob predicts whether you're an analyst or algebraist

#59

Post by noblethrasher » Sat, Aug 11, 2012, 1:44 PM UTC

Solving problems is about connecting things.

Analyst connect things by putting them in a "big" circle and then making the circle arbitrarily small.

Algebraist connect things by showing that you can get from one to the other with a line of operations.

I don't remember how I eat corn on the cob but I rarely finish it in either case :(

Re: How you eat corn on the cob predicts whether you're an analyst or algebraist

#60

Post by pacala » Sat, Aug 11, 2012, 1:49 PM UTC

Sniffnoy wrote: post #55

I'm very confused by the idea that OOP would be considered somehow more "algebraic". Functional programming seems way more algebraic to me. I mean, writing Haskell seems about as algebraic as programming gets even without using monads or other such very-high-level abstractions. Also, odd where he puts emacs/vi compared to where he puts programming languages, considering that emacs uses Lisp. (FWIW, I prefer algebra,…

OOP is more algebraic compared to procedural coding. In fact, OOP is morphing into functional programming as "design patterns" become widely adopted.