Let Go, Standard Library From Community

[Jeff Nowakowski]

Sean Kelly wrote:
> But many people do.  That aside, science and math courses are invaluable 
> for teaching problem solving skills, which are useful regardless of the 
> problem domain.

I see this idea mentioned over and over.  "you won't need all this 
baroque knowledge we're feeding you, yet it will help your problem 
solving skills".  Guess what I do when I write programs?  Yep, I solve 
problems.  I learned this skill while learning to program, and every 
time I program it is reinforced.

> I think that's likely true for entry level jobs, but over time I've been 
> surprised at just how useful math and science knowledge has been.

I've been programming in the industry since 1993.  Most people just 
don't need the math, and if you do, find a converted math major or 
mechanical engineer to help you out (unless they have forgotten all 
their math skills, as many of them do since they never use this stuff!).

> Personally, I'm more interested in finding people with solid problem 
> solving skills, good communication skills, and an ability to write 
> clear, maintainable code than a knowledge of UML, a facility with 
> specific tools, etc.  The last bit is more related to job-specific 
> knowledge anyway.

You can learn good problem solving skills, communication, etc. while 
actually learning valuable software engineering techniques.  I'm not 
talking about learning Java or UML.  I'm talking about learning how to 
handle errors (this topic was completely ignored during my education), 
distributed programming, concurrency, keeping a service up 24/7, 
testing, source control, project management, etc.  Solving physics 
problems is a waste of time, unless that is something that appeals to you.

-Jeff