Math is a subset of language, surely.
It's easily argued that languages are subsets of math.
The language brain matters more for programming than the math brain? (2020)
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Re: The language brain matters more for programming than the math brain? (2020)
#22This makes sense for my path to math. In high school I was bad at math and good at learning languages. Then I started learning Python and realized that it was just like learning a language. Then at some point I realized math notation was just another language for expressing the kinds of things you could express in Python. Now I'm in a job where I do math every day and I read math textbooks for fun.
It helped that Python was meant to resemble natural language. I had learned C++ and Perl before but they never stuck, because I never made the connection to language. Ironically, since Perl was designed by a linguist!
Re: The language brain matters more for programming than the math brain? (2020)
#23After I started my PhD program in CS/AI (late 90's), one of the faculty told me that the GRE verbal score was thing on the application most predictive of student success in the program. Of course, most applicants had perfect or near perfect GRE math scores, so there was no predictive power there. But the application also included the GRE subject test, transcripts, and letters of recommendation.
The GRE math bar for excellence was quite low and so a perfect score was only the 92nd percentile or so. It’s not surprising that other metrics correlated better with success
Putnam exam score might be more predictive?
Re: The language brain matters more for programming than the math brain? (2020)
#24After I started my PhD program in CS/AI (late 90's), one of the faculty told me that the GRE verbal score was thing on the application most predictive of student success in the program. Of course, most applicants had perfect or near perfect GRE math scores, so there was no predictive power there. But the application also included the GRE subject test, transcripts, and letters of recommendation.
I also seem to recall from The Making of the Atomic Bomb that the theoretical physicists of the era were noted as having the highest verbal intelligence of any group of scientists. That struck me since I would not have expected it. EDIT: I found the quote, from chapter 6: Psychometricians have closely questioned American scientists of this first modern generation, curious to know what kind of men they were—there were…
I'd think strong verbal skills would make for better collaboration between scientists.
Re: The language brain matters more for programming than the math brain? (2020)
#25I have found a fairly interesting correlation between people who are good at learning programming and people who are good at English spelling bees. Something about holding a lot of anecdotes and esoteric rule exceptions when performing an otherwise algorithmic process.
Makes sense to me; I've always been a naturally good English speller. My brain just knows how to store and retrieve this type of data, which has a high correlation with e.g. CLI interfaces and their idiosyncratic command structures.
I can’t decide if you’ve cheekily included the classic homophonic there-error. This isn’t technically an issue with English spelling, but I think you intended to communicate that CLI interfaces have idiosyncratic command structures, not that they are idiosyncratic structures themselves. If I’ve been taken in by pedant-bait, I apologize.
Re: The language brain matters more for programming than the math brain? (2020)
#26Re: The language brain matters more for programming than the math brain? (2020)
#27Re: The language brain matters more for programming than the math brain? (2020)
#28And yet CS grad programs seem to care about only the math section of the GRE
Re: The language brain matters more for programming than the math brain? (2020)
#29After I started my PhD program in CS/AI (late 90's), one of the faculty told me that the GRE verbal score was thing on the application most predictive of student success in the program. Of course, most applicants had perfect or near perfect GRE math scores, so there was no predictive power there. But the application also included the GRE subject test, transcripts, and letters of recommendation.
The GRE math bar for excellence was quite low and so a perfect score was only the 92nd percentile or so. It’s not surprising that other metrics correlated better with success
Sure, but also, if you can't read and write well, you're going to struggle in a PhD, because that's really a lot of what you have to do.
Re: The language brain matters more for programming than the math brain? (2020)
#30After I started my PhD program in CS/AI (late 90's), one of the faculty told me that the GRE verbal score was thing on the application most predictive of student success in the program. Of course, most applicants had perfect or near perfect GRE math scores, so there was no predictive power there. But the application also included the GRE subject test, transcripts, and letters of recommendation.
Makes sense that verbal ability would line up more with success in CS, especially when math scores are already high across the board. A lot of programming leans on language-type skills: reading and understanding code, navigating docs, naming things clearly, writing maintainable logic etc.
The field probably does itself a disservice by overemphasising math. That framing can push people away who might actually do really well, especially those strong in reasoning, abstraction, or communication. Linked study is a good reminder to rethink how we present programming imo.