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Discussion on: We're Stephanie Hurlburt and Rich Geldreich, ask us anything!

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John Best

How can one be good at algorithms and data structures if they're bad at math? Are they doomed?

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Stephanie Hurlburt

I just wanted to be sure to point out that most programmers I know claim to be "bad at" or not like math. You're not alone! Math does not need to be your thing for you to program.

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John Best

I've always tried to teach myself math, but I always forget all the formulae and stuff. D:

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Michael Hill

I've made a career out of developing and have always struggled with math. There are large swaths of development (including some game dev) that don't need anything more complicated than division and multiplication.

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Rich Geldreich

No, you're not. I learned the algorithms first by reading about them and implementing them, then I picked up the math on the fly. For me, visualization is everything. For examples, check out sort visualization:
cs.usfca.edu/~galles/visualization...

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John Best

Awesome. I was diagnosed with Dyscalculia in college and I've always been terrified it was going to ruin my career.

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John Best

Thanks!