Math Skills For Programmers — Necessary Or Not?

An anonymous reader writes "Currently, the nature of most programming work is such that you don't really need math skills to get by or even to do well; after all, linear algebra is no help when building database-driven websites. However, Skorks contends that if you want to do truly interesting work in the software development field, math skills are essential, and furthermore will become increasingly important as we are forced to work with ever larger data sets (making math-intensive algorithm analysis skills a priority)."

Re:Given two programmers

[Thanshin]

do I have the level of understanding with all of Kelper's Laws and bits to change them to what I want for my game? Nope.

You needed to change that bit for your game?

Re:Absolutely

[Antony-Kyre]

That would be the math nerd... the one who knows how to multiply.

Re:Given two programmers

[lgw]

There's more to commercial coding than CRUD work, young Skywalker. This kernel API documentation was your father's, but now I pass it on to you.

Re:Ah there it goes again

[TheVelvetFlamebait]

Just my 0.02c of course.

In a world where people contribute an ostentatious $0.02 to a discussion, you are contributing 0.02c. Your humility amazes me sir!

That, or you're just incredibly stingy. ;-)

Re:Given two programmers

[Anonymous Coward]

Nooooooo!

Re:Given two programmers

[outsider007]

My people skills would give your math skills a wedgie.

Re:Ah there it goes again

[francium de neobie]

He's contributing 5 995 849.16 m/s, which is much faster than the max speed of your car, sir.

Re:Given two programmers

[Anonymous Coward]

You can stick with your opinions. I will stick with the facts.

Re:Strong Math Skills often get dumbed down

[khallow]

I think that's a bit too complex. You need to dumb it down a little.

Thog no grok means code no work when you gone.

Re:Given two programmers

[SWPadnos]

Now that's funny.

I had a professor who said it like this:

Math is the only pure science
Physics is chunky math
Chemistry is wet physics
Biology is gooey chemistry

(or something like that)

Re:Given two programmers

[BattleApple]

:( Sincerely, Paul Kinko

Re:Given two programmers

[computational super]

if you can't prove that the code you have written is going to do what you want 100% of the time or its not 100% accurate

Bah! If it works on my machine, my work is done.

Re:Given two programmers

[computational super]

The three best programmers I know, who came up with incredibly clever algorithms and got large projects done in amazing ways were all high school dropouts.

So anecdotally then, should we assume that the best programmers would be those who didn't even make it to high school?

Susie: "Yeah, that's it. You're too smart for the class."

Calvin: "Believe it, lady! You know how Einstein got bad grades when he was a kid? Well, mine are even worse!"

Re:Not necessary

[TheRaven64]

You choose 'quicksort' because it says 'quick' on the label. Your data is mostly sorted already, so it should be really fast, right?

Necessary or Not?

[Mind Socket]

== true

How did I do?