Ask HN: What are some important math topics every programmer should know?

Re:Ask HN: What are some important math topics every program... by loco5niner on Thursday June 04, 2015 @05:43PM (#9662329)

> you're better off spending time learning CS topics (e.g. floating point number representation/bugs/limitations, encryption/hashing/etc, binary representations, assembly, kernel inner workings, CPU inner workings, and even borderline electronics)

This. These are things that will directly affect the quality of your code.

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Re:Ask HN: What are some important math topics every program... by ColinWright on Thursday June 04, 2015 @05:45PM (#9662343)

Blub.

To expand on that, read Paul Graham's essay "Beating the Averages."

http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html

You're stating, unequivocally, that math doesn't directly affect the quality of your code. In fact, in seems to me[0] that the vast majority of people who repeatedly declare that math is useless or of minimal use in coding are themselves not qualified in math. To them it's just all abstract nonsense that they don't need.

Contrast that with people who have got deep qualifications in math who say, repeatedly, that it does affect the quality of their code, and it does help.

What do you make of that?

If you don't have any background in math then you won't have the knowledge and experience to see when it will be useful.

[0] I'd love to see a proper survey/study of this.

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