Poor, Poor Child. You have no idea.
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Poor, Poor Child. You have no idea.
1–10 of 75 posts
Re: Poor, Poor Child. You have no idea.
#2Well, I'm sorry to say I strongly disagree with the mathematics part. Basis in linera algebra are a definitive plus and helped me approach programming in a sensible way.
Re: Poor, Poor Child. You have no idea.
#3While there are clearly differences between languages, I think it is rather deterministic to put that much weight on the first language? My first language was GW Basic. By your logic, there wouldn't be much hope for me I guess..
Re: Poor, Poor Child. You have no idea.
#4In the beginning of Hillegass's book, Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X, he has a great quote of someone from Caltech being asked about the real world usefulness of a degree in astrophysics. His response was "Not much, but if I run into a hard problem and start thinking I must be stupid because I can't figure this out, then I remember I have a degree in astrophysics so I am not stupid and this must be hard. So in that way it is useful." I'm paraphrasing (the book is buried somewhere) but that always stuck and your post reminded me how important it is to keep at it because coding is not easy, but it is worth it.
Re: Poor, Poor Child. You have no idea.
#5It's ok to suck at maths if your idea of maths is limited arithmetic, something computers are indeed very good at and your idea of programming is limited to hooking up web forms to databases.
I'm not a linguistics major but I do speak several human languages and have no trouble thinking in them and expressing ideas in them. The first computer languages I learned (6502 assembly, BASIC) don't enter my conscious thought when I think about the programming problems I encounter with the languages I use today.
Re: Poor, Poor Child. You have no idea.
#6In the beginning of Hillegass's book, Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X, he has a great quote of someone from Caltech being asked about the real world usefulness of a degree in astrophysics. His response was "Not much, but if I run into a hard problem and start thinking I must be stupid because I can't figure this out, then I remember I have a degree in astrophysics so I am not stupid and this must be hard. So in that w…
Thanks for mentioning this.
I've actually been working through that book over the past few days and think that anecdote really got under my skin. For some reason it didn't dawn on me when writing the article. I'll make note of it.
Re: Poor, Poor Child. You have no idea.
#7Programming isn't hard, programming is fun! Ok, it is hardish sometimes, but hard in a fun way not hard in the non-fun way this article seems to imply.
And I really don't think your first language is all that important, programming is still fun usually, whatever the language. It's only later that we learn the fine art of language snobbery ;)
Re: Poor, Poor Child. You have no idea.
#8Programming isn't hard, programming is fun! Ok, it is hardish sometimes, but hard in a fun way not hard in the non-fun way this article seems to imply. And I really don't think your first language is all that important, programming is still fun usually, whatever the language. It's only later that we learn the fine art of language snobbery ;)
Hard and fun are not mutually exclusive.
Re: Poor, Poor Child. You have no idea.
#9Well, I'm sorry to say I strongly disagree with the mathematics part. Basis in linera algebra are a definitive plus and helped me approach programming in a sensible way.
Seconded. As your command of mathematics becomes stronger, many aspects of programming become a lot easier.
Re: Poor, Poor Child. You have no idea.
#10Well, I'm sorry to say I strongly disagree with the mathematics part. Basis in linera algebra are a definitive plus and helped me approach programming in a sensible way.
I think it really depends on what you want to make. How does math help you make a CRUD application, for example?