I've always flunked at math; and knowing how intertwined programming is with math, I'm skeptical of my ability to learn how to code. Can someone be too dumb to learn programming? If it helps, I'm mostly interested in learning Common Lisp.
Yes. But are most managers too dumb to figure out that you can't program? Also yes.
I was gonna suggest there might be a "too dumb to program for the profit of others", but ... yeah, even if your pay and code is a financial detriment, we can pretty much promise it'll be an insignificant portion of the money that company is costing itself. You gotta eat, and practice is practice.
That said, advice remains the same: program on company time towards a path you don't care about beyond covering your ass and trying to deliver what's been demanded(I'm not saying don't do your best, just keep it to what you can do on the clock), and see that as practice for passion projects on the side. Save a little bit of that no-fucks-given/objectivity for objectively testing and fixing your code - fix it like someone else made the mistake, and you can do it better, but at the same time something must ship(don't let perfect be the enemy of good).
Math knowledge is not essential; but really useful in programming as you're trying to make the computer do calculations of some sort.
Someone could definitely be too dumb to code though.
Math is less important than logical thinking which often, but not always, goes with math skills. More important still is intellectual curiosity. Do you like solving puzzles? Do you like the feeling of breakthrough after a frustrating struggle figuring out how something works? Those will take you a long way.
Programming success is more closely associated with language skills than math skills.
Yes, if you need to invent a new algorithm you'll need math. Computer Science is definitely mathematics heavy.
But writing a program is all about expressing your intent in a programming language, step by step. It's about "communicating" with the machine (and your users).
All this to say, I got C- and D grades in my math courses in college and still became a successful computer programmer. I'm not pushing the boundaries of computation, but if you need an app for your business, I can build that for you in a reliable, tested, and flexible manner.
Edit: Also! I love Common LISP. It's such an amazing language and I'm so sad that it isn't more popular in the industry.
But writing a program is all about expressing your intent in a programming language, step by step. It's about "communicating" with the machine (and your users).
And your coworkers, and 'you a year from now'. For the love of god have some compassion with 'you a year from now' and save him a day of debugging.
Nah, no need to worry. I've got a friend that was bad at math and therefore dismissed a career as programmer initially. Eventually, he just couldn't ignore how much programming interested him and did start a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science (after disliking his first year of Finance). A couple of years later and he's the proud owner of a Master's degree in Computer Science while still being relatively bad at math, but it didn't stop him. Nor should it stop you.
80% of programming jobs will only require basic maths.
A lot of the time you're glueing together libraries written by much smarter people haha
It's more about logic than maths. People absolutely can find it too hard.
Most common reason for being bad at programming is finding it boring and thinking the tools are needlessly obtuse.
If anything this is a sign of great intellect.
Yeah this is why I didn't do great with programming in college. I didn't find any part of it interesting.
Usually when people say “I suck at maths”, it means that they are bad at doing manual calculus. Maths is extremely useful in programming, but it’s absolutely not the same kind of math. I don’t think that the grade you had in math at school will influence in any if you will be good or bad in programming.
Have too low IQ? Yeah sure, I guess.
Be slower at it than the norm? Absolutely.
I only learned Algebra by learning programming and through that I learned how to think abstractly (abstract just mean "hiding details" - think of how a child draws a car. You can't tell it's colour, brand, model, etc, yet you can tell it's a car, even though all those details are hidden). Once I got that, I was able to follow videos from MIT that taught me more of the maths, giving me a theoretic foundation for programming. Now I'm doing an Algorithm course (also MIT) and feel like an "actual programmer" (because I felt like a "fake programmer" before that - though that still sometimes returns). After that I intend to learn more about SQL because I'm painfully lacking in that regard.
Anyway, I've been at it since 2005 when I was a 20-something kid, and there's always something new to learn.
FYI: I made a dependency graph of a bunch of freely available MIT courses, left is a dependency for stuff on the right: https://thaumatorium.com/articles/mit-courses/
Very helpful chart! I want to share this with some younger folks I know just getting in to the field!
Like with anything, you will not know if you are going to be good at it until you spend a lot of time trying and failing and learning. If you enjoy it, just keep doing it.
Is there a reason you want to start with lisp? If you're like, intellectually incapable of complex languages, the simple one I'm familiar with is python, which works great for a beginner who doesn't want to get into the nitty gritty of implementation. As long as you're not developing for a business or similar, I doubt you'll even notice there is an efficiency difference. IMO, the increased readability is tantamount to Python's usefulness to newbies.
THIS!! Start with something simple like Python. I don't think you need to be good at math to be a good programmer. If you understand the concepts of math theny you will be fine. I heard Rita Wilson say the other day something like "If you keep practising something you can only get better at it". (not a direct quote) Find a Problem then solve it. That is the best way to learn.
No, I don't think so.
It just takes a bit longer for some to grasp certain concepts of a programming language. If I think I need more time I try to solve an issue for my own projects first. When I need a thing for work, it won't be the first time anymore I see a particular problem and deal with it faster.
I consider myself an average programmer, but I am also proud of the programs that do some valuable things for me and I can rely on. You can always go back to your old code and optimize it as soon as you learn new things.
I have respect for those who seem to program only at work and don't show when they are in trouble (stressed because of deadlines), but in the end their code works, too, after it came back from the second review.
Can you follow Dave Touretzky's book? The 1990 PDF version is free.
