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creepypasta13
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I just completed my undergrad in physics and applied math, but I liked the applied math more partly because the physics got too abstract for me - I liked classical mechanics more than quantum mechanics. As a result, I had been strongly considering getting my MS or phD in mechanical/aerospace engineering. In fact. I thought I was completely sure of this until I came across Paul Graham's (he's a programmer) website. If I pursued a career in ME/AE, I would work in academia, a private or public company, the national labs, or the army/navy/air force labs etc. But starting a startup sounds much more interesting to me because I can run my own company, not have to deal with office politics, deal with bureaucracy, and have the potential to make a lot more money than in ME/AE. So I thought about how much I enjoyed programming to see if I would like to start my own startup. Well that's something to think about.
I only took one CS class in my undergrad, which was an intro to C++ course, a few years ago. I didn't even know what HTML was until about a week ago. Other than C++, matlab, and mathematica, I know essentially nothing about other programming languages, what algorithms are, etc. But I did use C++ extensively in one of my undergrad research projects with an applied math professor. He basically gave me a relatively simple physics problem he wanted me to model and then generate simulations of the process using C++. Given that my only prior programming experience was taking 1 intro CS course, I struggled mightily with the project. My program consisted of only basic if, for loops, etc. Nothing complicated and no object-oriented programming. Though I did find it challenging and fun to write the project, I also ran into lots of frustrations. In the end, I was able to get the program to do was it was supposed to, but it probably wasn't the best program that could as much as possible as quickly as possible. I understand that running into unexpected problems with unknown solutions is a part of research projects, but I'm sure if I had better programming skills I could've done things ALOT more efficiently.
Anyways, I heard that applied math and CS/programming are very similar. But other than them both requiring problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, I didn't really see their similarities from my applied math classes. Then again, I didn't take discrete math, number theory, combinatorics, or graph theory. The applied math courses I took were analysis, PDEs, ODEs (proof-based), linear algebra (proof-based), prob/stats, Fourier analysis, and numerical analysis. I did enjoy the numerical analysis course as the concepts were interesting and the HW problems involving Matlab were challenging. But again, I wasn't good at it and often couldn't obtain full solutions to the programing problems. I did much better with the numerical analysis theory
That being said, would someone like me enjoy a job involving lots of programming that's required for doing stuff on websites? I'm pretty sure that I would like programming for solving physical/engineering problems. The question is just whether I would like it enough to create and run my own website for something like an online dating site.
I only took one CS class in my undergrad, which was an intro to C++ course, a few years ago. I didn't even know what HTML was until about a week ago. Other than C++, matlab, and mathematica, I know essentially nothing about other programming languages, what algorithms are, etc. But I did use C++ extensively in one of my undergrad research projects with an applied math professor. He basically gave me a relatively simple physics problem he wanted me to model and then generate simulations of the process using C++. Given that my only prior programming experience was taking 1 intro CS course, I struggled mightily with the project. My program consisted of only basic if, for loops, etc. Nothing complicated and no object-oriented programming. Though I did find it challenging and fun to write the project, I also ran into lots of frustrations. In the end, I was able to get the program to do was it was supposed to, but it probably wasn't the best program that could as much as possible as quickly as possible. I understand that running into unexpected problems with unknown solutions is a part of research projects, but I'm sure if I had better programming skills I could've done things ALOT more efficiently.
Anyways, I heard that applied math and CS/programming are very similar. But other than them both requiring problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, I didn't really see their similarities from my applied math classes. Then again, I didn't take discrete math, number theory, combinatorics, or graph theory. The applied math courses I took were analysis, PDEs, ODEs (proof-based), linear algebra (proof-based), prob/stats, Fourier analysis, and numerical analysis. I did enjoy the numerical analysis course as the concepts were interesting and the HW problems involving Matlab were challenging. But again, I wasn't good at it and often couldn't obtain full solutions to the programing problems. I did much better with the numerical analysis theory
That being said, would someone like me enjoy a job involving lots of programming that's required for doing stuff on websites? I'm pretty sure that I would like programming for solving physical/engineering problems. The question is just whether I would like it enough to create and run my own website for something like an online dating site.
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