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

submitted 9 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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[–] ChubakPDP11@programming.dev 7 points 9 months ago

I think you are irresponsible towards your future if you are a gainfully employed self-taught programmer, and don't invest in formal education. If you say 'I don't have time!' well, consider this, even night classes in junior colleges teach you stuff you don't know. Go to them, get your associates. I am in the process of getting into a contract where I do some thankless jobs for someone I know, he in exchange pays me to go to college. I am 31 -- as I said in the other thread, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH BEING A LATE-COLLEGER!

I have been to college, I have studied 3 subjects for a total of 9 semesters, I have no degree to show for any of them :( I quit English lit, French lit and "Programming" all after 3 semesters. But when I was studying French lit, there was a guy in our class who was SIXTY-FIVE YEARS OLD! He wanted to learn French to open up some a commerce consulting office, focusing on import/export from France.

What I wanted to do was to 'write', keep in mind, 'write', not 'draw' bande dessine! But now that I am older and hopefully wiser, I have a set goal in mind. I am going to go this 'boutic' college near our home to study Electronics Engineering and when push comes to shove and China makes its move, start a chipset engineering firm with a production wing.

Just like how electronics is math with physics, programming is the virtual aspect of it. it's 'applied math'. I understand enough discmath because I studied enough of it both in college, and high school (since I was math/physics elective) so I have managed to understand some very rough and old papers.

You can always self-study if you haven't got the time. Here's a book which is kind of a meme, but it's still very good: https://fuuu.be/polytech/INFOF408/Introduction-To-The-Theory-Of-Computation-Michael-Sipser.pdf

This is the 2nd edition though, 3rd is out

I think 4th is coming. The best goddamn book, regardless of its meme status.