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Olga Khazan writes in The Atlantic that learning to program involves a lot of Googling, logic, and trial-and-error—but almost nothing beyond fourth-grade arithmetic.
Victoria Fine explains how she taught herself how to code despite hating math. Her secret? Lots and lots of Googling. "Like any good Google query, a successful answer depended on asking the right question. “How do I make a website red” was not nearly as successful a question as “CSS color values HEX red” combined with “CSS background color.” I spent a lot of time learning to Google like a pro. I carefully learned the vocabulary of HTML so I knew what I was talking about when I asked the Internet for answers."
According to Khazan while it’s true that some types of code look a little like equations, you don’t really have to solve them, just know where they go and what they do. "In most cases you can see that the hard maths (the physical and geometry) is either done by a computer or has been done by someone else. While the calculations do happen and are essential to the successful running of the program, the programmer does not need to know how they are done."
Khazan says that in order to figure out what your program should say, you’re going to need some basic logic skills and you’ll need to be skilled at copying and pasting things from online repositories and tweaking them slightly. "But humanities majors, fresh off writing reams of term papers, are probably more talented at that than math majors are."
Original Submission
(Score: 2) by WizardFusion on Thursday September 03 2015, @10:23AM
The word you are looking for is Algebra. I was OK at Maths (yes, it has a S at the end) in school/collage, but great with algebra.
I believe this is what helps give a good foundation with coding.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Justin Case on Thursday September 03 2015, @10:45AM
How many maths did you study?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 03 2015, @11:42AM
How many maths did you study?
Alls of thems.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 03 2015, @12:15PM
So you think algebra is not mathematics?
Or are you under the delusion that maths is what you learn in the maths class at school?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 03 2015, @12:59PM
I was OK at Maths (yes, it has a S at the end) in school/collage,
No, it doesn't. Also "college" has no "a" in it.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 03 2015, @02:05PM
Also "college" has no "a" in it.
Unless it is a collage of maths.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday September 03 2015, @09:00PM
I was OK at Maths (yes, it has a S at the end) in school/collage,
Ah, but did you attend one school, or possibly many collages (with an s at the end, inexplicably!)?
Maybe we could say you attended a collage of colleges, perhaps?
But in any case, the Greek word μάθημα does not refer to any specific area of study, it includes all.
(Score: 2) by gidds on Sunday September 06 2015, @10:44AM
You know that, and I know that — but those poor benighted colonials in the Americas don't know any better, and for some reason won't accept the truth from us. I find it's usually safer just to humour them.
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