[thechat] maths /programming
Luther, Ron
Ron.Luther at hp.com
Tue Jul 2 09:52:00 CDT 2002
Hi Dean,
I was a theoretical math guy. I guess that's "pure math" - Topology and stuff like that. The only numbers we dealt with were at the bottom of the pages. ;-)
Fortunately, I was a year ahead in the program so I was only a junior when the seniors suddenly realized they were about to graduate and had their "Fsck! I better acquire a marketable skill - Fast!" awakenings. They loaded up on programming classes - not because they liked it - but in order to get real jobs. Some were good at it - some weren't.
I noticed their panic but decided not to follow the lemmas [1], {too mundane for me - I gotta be 'different' ;-) }, so instead I took a bunch of operations research courses and ended up getting a job designing custom statistical studies ... and had to write my own applied custom analysis software for each project. <D'Oh! />
RonL.
(Yeah - I think it's true - we 'pure math' guys usually do look down our noses at applied stuff. But hey! Don't I get extra credit? I actually _did_ bring beer and pizza in to my Fortran final!)
[1] Yes - I know it's 'lemmings' - but they were pure math folks, so 'lemmas' is more appropriate.
-----Original Message-----
From: Dean Mah [mailto:dmah at members.evolt.org]
I've known a couple math graduates that were into pure math. They
despised application. It only took a sinlge computer course for them
to realize that they weren't good programmers and hated the subject.
Too much application for them.
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