This is a joke but programmers only need to know how to +1 to a number
Ask HN: Math for Programmers?
21–30 of 46 posts
Re: Ask HN: Math for Programmers?
#22I'm writing a book just for you :) It's called "Practical Math: A Tour of Mathematics in Production Software" ( https://pmfpbook.org points to an announcement and mailing list) The idea is to give a large swath of examples of math used to solve real problems, and collectively to give a good answer to your question. And to have the examples be appreciable by the average programmer, in the sense that they could reasona…
The pimbook itself looks fantastic. As an aside, any recommendations on the inverse, a programming introduction for mathematicians.
Re: Ask HN: Math for Programmers?
#23Counter point - I am terrible at Maths, like awful. I failed Maths for Computer Science in my degree but managed to get a pass on it as all my other grades were great. Overall it has really not affected my life in any way or my career throughout my 15 years as a code monkey through many roles into now a CTO position for the past 5. There are a lot of things and patterns you pick up as you go, and maybe I just got luc…
I would agree, your typical dev writing CRUD apps needs an ok grasp of algebra, and that's about it.
What would you say they need the algebra for?
Re: Ask HN: Math for Programmers?
#24I'm writing a book just for you :) It's called "Practical Math: A Tour of Mathematics in Production Software" ( https://pmfpbook.org points to an announcement and mailing list) The idea is to give a large swath of examples of math used to solve real problems, and collectively to give a good answer to your question. And to have the examples be appreciable by the average programmer, in the sense that they could reasona…
I can't join your mailing list, as my Email-Address looks "fake or invalid".
Re: Ask HN: Math for Programmers?
#25This is a joke but programmers only need to know how to +1 to a number
Succ in lambda calculus (or set theory)
Re: Ask HN: Math for Programmers?
#26I wrote Geometry for Programmers (https://www.manning.com/books/geometry-for-programmers) and even so, I don't think that math knowledge is really essential for programming. It is, of course, a non-perishable competitive advantage so from a career perspective, it makes sense to invest in mathematical education as early as possible. But it's not truly essential. Mathematical illiteracy does not disqualify a programmer from being a programmer.
In a modern technological climate, math savviness feels more like a superpower from the 50s comic books applied to a real-world profession. Would X-ray vision make you a better doctor? Probably. But nowadays, there are tomography machines in every hospital. Would flying make you a better urban planner? Maybe. But there are drones and satellite imagery. Would learning geometry make you a better game programmer? Sure. But there are engines and frameworks that do your math for you.
Surely, knowing geometry behind your tools enables you to outperform the "no math" solutions. Sometimes drastically. But today, it's more like a bonus not a necessity.
Re: Ask HN: Math for Programmers?
#27This is not a math textbook. It's a listing of the math that I am glad to vaguely be aware of, without anything that requires true understanding, because I don't have that, but with references to what the people who do have it can do!
It's 90kb of pure text and covers a lot of domains with just enough info you could figure out how to make a CAS do the things, with maybe some googling. It's had some reviews, and it fact I think is the only project I've ever got PRs on, but may be incomplete or inaccurate, I can't prove most of this for myself, just test it or find references.
There are examples but no excercises, my assumption is that math is a computers job, and I only give a starting point for any study beyond "This exists and a machine can do it".
I assume geometry is for the CAD and arithmetic is for the calculator, and actually knowing how to do it yourself is for the curious who Google it after finding out what it is.
Further contributions welcome, especially in the domains I haven't covered (Graphs, automata, and lambda calculus would be great of there's anything to add that matches the level and tone I'm going for).
I'd love to have more CSy stuff, right now it's all from an embedded, wedbdev, and 3d printing perspective.
https://github.com/EternityForest/AnyoneCanDoIt/blob/master/...
Re: Ask HN: Math for Programmers?
#28The average programmer could probably get by with high school maths and just enough college-level statistics to know the difference between mean, median, percentile, and standard deviation.
I'd argue the majority of programmers and software engineers don't need anything beyond being able to work with percentages. But I also argue that the majority of programmers and software engineers are not computer scientists and normally do not need or use much computer science knowledge. Computer scientists probably use math a lot.
Re: Ask HN: Math for Programmers?
#29You asked about math for programmers, not for computer scientists. Two different things.
The math you know is more than enough. Some specific domains you go into may need additional math, but that's because of the domain, not because of programming in general. If you need more, learn what you need when you find out that you need it.
Re: Ask HN: Math for Programmers?
#30> I've learned You’ve got all you need. You can learn programming now.
They mentioned probabilities, but not measure theory. They might want a deeper and more intuitive understanding that they'd get through measure theoretic probability before going too deep into programming.
I hope that was sarcasm, because it is amazingly wrong. Measure theory is absolutely not a "learn this before programming" thing. It's peripheral at best, completely irrelevant at worst.