

Software development final exam answers: Part 3 - tmoertel
http://www.daemonology.net/blog/2013-01-26-software-development-final-answers-part-3.html

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Tekker
A number of these have to do with statistics and calculus, but really isn't
pertinent to overall software development. Yes, a math background helps with
certain kinds of development, but it doesn't preclude general success in
software development. I'd be more interested in questions about multitasking,
threads, dynamic storage options and so forth rather than what percentage of
spam hits my server. That's a basic math question.

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cperciva
Yes, it's a basic math question... and one any developer really ought to be
able to solve.

As for other areas, you know this is just one of the four parts of the exam,
right?

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tmoertel
Colin, if we start with the hypothesis that "any developer really ought to be
able to solve [that problem]", we get a testable prediction: If a person
cannot solve that problem, that person is not "really" capable of being a
developer. This prediction, however, doesn't seem to survive long when exposed
to reality: There are lots of people who cannot solve that problem but are
succeeding, right now, in jobs that most people would accept as software
development.

Software development is a _big_ space with lots of room for specialization.
Maybe it would be better, then, to model what is essential to "development"
not as a distribution over knowledge but as a joint distribution over
knowledge and specialization.

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cperciva
We're very good at working around our deficits. The fact that someone can be a
successful developer without knowing basic probability doesn't mean that a
lack of knowledge of probability isn't a deficit; they might be a much better
and _more_ successful developer if they filled that gap.

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jiggy2011
This is true, though arguably lack of any knowledge about anything is a
deficit.

Since it's impossible to know everything about everything, it's really a
question of "what is the probability that this will be useful?"

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cperciva
Right, which is why I was making the point that there are a great many
situations where an understanding of probability will help.

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jiggy2011
I don't necessarily disagree in this case. Though I can't think of many times
in my career where I had explicitly calculate probabilities, though may be an
outlier.

I think it's more a concern about a general attitude sometimes displayed on HN
like "You don't know how X86 handles memory alignment, dude you even code?"

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FollowSteph3
For all I learned in university, I've applied less than 1%. Is it just me or
is that sad? I learned how to learn, but really overall the skills thought are
so disjointed as to make it almost useless...

