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What are the craziest misconceptions you’ve heard about programming from people not familiar with it? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 8 months ago by gianni@lemmy.ml to c/programming@programming.dev

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As someone who spends time programming, I of course find myself in conversations with people who aren't as familiar with it. It doesn't happen all the time, but these discussions can lead to people coming up with some pretty wild misconceptions about what programming is and what programmers do.

I'm sure many of you have had similar experiences. So, I thought it would be interesting to ask.

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[–] stoly@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Don't underestimate what having the necessary intuitions do engage with mathematics does for you. A significant portion of the population is incapable of that, mostly because we have a very poor way of teaching it as a subject.

[–] kaffiene@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Funny you should say that as I was thinking that the idea that math has anything to do with programming is the biggest misconprehension I encounter.

[–] datelmd5sum@lemmy.world 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Hey we did all sort of crazy shit with linear algebra, vectors matrices and shit in college programmlng. Now I sometimes do some basic arithmetic in work life. E.g:

n = n + 1

[–] groucho@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 8 months ago

Sometimes, very rarely, I tell my squad that today's our unlucky day and we're actually going to have to do math to the problem.

[–] NeonKnight52@lemmy.ca 3 points 8 months ago

This is very fair. Math has always come fairly easily to me. So math intuition plays a part in my interest and ability to learn to program.

I think most people, even smart people, assume they couldn't do it though because I'm some kind of genius, which only a few programmers actually are.

[–] Fungah@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I can't do math for shit and I failed formal logic in uni. I'm not built for math. I just.... Don't care and can't make myself care. I've taught myself python over the past year and amd have become fairly comfortable with bash. Which has weirdly helped me with python?

Anyway I'm not very good at either yet. And there are huge gaps in my knowledge. But I'm learning every day.

I've done it on my own, and dove right into the fucking deep end with it which is probably the hardest way. But if I can do it then anyone can. You just need to want it. Why do I want it? I have no idea. If go crazy doing it for a living.

[–] AProfessional@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

Learning more languages always helps understanding ime. I’d recommend learning C.

[–] areyouevenreal@lemm.ee 1 points 8 months ago

Learning python isn't jumping in at the deep end. Learning assembly or C would be the deep end. Also programming has little to do with maths anymore, and the maths you use for programming isn't the kind most people are taught in school.