<story><title>Self-Taught Programmers vs CS-Educated Programmers</title><url>http://chezpete.posterous.com/self-taught-programmer-vs-cs-educated-program</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pkaler</author><text>The one difference I see is that CS Educated Programmers that went to good schools took a lot of math.&lt;p&gt;I have met very few self-taught programmers that also happen to be self-taught mathematicians.  This limits the type of code you can write.&lt;p&gt;Linear algebra is required to deeply understand computer graphics.&lt;p&gt;Calculus is required anywhere you have signal processing.  This means audio and video editing.&lt;p&gt;Physics is required for simulation software and video games.&lt;p&gt;Discrete and combinatorial math is required in systems software like databases.&lt;p&gt;You&apos;re just not going to hit these issues if what you do all day is glue Javascript and Ruby together.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jawngee</author><text>Huh?&lt;p&gt;I&apos;m self taught, the last math class I took was 9th grade Algebra.&lt;p&gt;I wrote one of the first vector based, anti-aliased, alpha channeled UI frameworks for Windows 95 (16 bit!).  I wrote a DSP processing engine for a telemedical application to monitor heart rate and blood pressure in 1997.  I&apos;ve written control software for elevators.  I&apos;ve written contract after effects plugins for post fx shops.  I&apos;ve written audio and midi sequencers.  My video editing app, Shave, is the only other useful editor in the Mac App Store other than iMovie.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;ve never cracked a math book.&lt;p&gt;Am I the exception that proves the rule?  I&apos;m not saying I could write Maya, but I think you are overvaluing your opinion a little.</text></comment>
<story><title>Self-Taught Programmers vs CS-Educated Programmers</title><url>http://chezpete.posterous.com/self-taught-programmer-vs-cs-educated-program</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pkaler</author><text>The one difference I see is that CS Educated Programmers that went to good schools took a lot of math.&lt;p&gt;I have met very few self-taught programmers that also happen to be self-taught mathematicians.  This limits the type of code you can write.&lt;p&gt;Linear algebra is required to deeply understand computer graphics.&lt;p&gt;Calculus is required anywhere you have signal processing.  This means audio and video editing.&lt;p&gt;Physics is required for simulation software and video games.&lt;p&gt;Discrete and combinatorial math is required in systems software like databases.&lt;p&gt;You&apos;re just not going to hit these issues if what you do all day is glue Javascript and Ruby together.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>smanek</author><text>&lt;i&gt;shrugs&lt;/i&gt; I don&apos;t have a degree and I&apos;m fairly comfortable with all those topics (and quite a few more - including abstract algebra, real analysis, numerical methods, tiny bits and pieces of category theory, etc).&lt;p&gt;I like to read journal articles, and when I stumble onto something I don&apos;t know, I go learn about it. Just in the last year or so, I&apos;ve taught myself stochastic calculus (I was doing HFT and wanted to learn more about the greeks) and the basic typed lambda calculus (was into haskell and wanted to learn more type theory). These days I&apos;m doing distributed systems, so I&apos;m brushing up on the process calculi.</text></comment>