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Trae Zeeofor
Trae Zeeofor

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Mathematics: Timeless Wisdom in a Changing Tech World

Trying to get familiar with binary trees and linked lists data structures over the past few days brought me to the realization that, unlike programming languages and technologies, mathematics is timeless. P.S. Data structures are deeply rooted in mathematical concepts.

The same textbooks I inherited from my father decades ago, which he himself used half a century ago, I could easily pass down to my son to use in a couple of years' time, and he would still find them immensely useful. For these data structures, I was able to look for and follow my favorite FreeCodeCamp YouTube courses without any fear of consuming deprecated knowledge.

Nothing of such exists, however, in the "technical debt" land of programming. Trying to learn CSS, JavaScript, Python, or even C++ using books or tutorials published 5 to 10 years ago is very much ill-advised, as standards have rapidly evolved. It's even worse when it comes to frameworks and libraries in the ecosystem of these languages; an application built 2 years ago can desperately be in need of maintenance to conform to current best practices.

Christians have it easy right? "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." 😁

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