100. Math for Programmers

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Hailey Walls is a Customer Solutions Architect with Heroku, and she's engaged in a conversation with Paul Orland, the founder of Tachyus and author of Math for Programmers. Paul took graduate level math classes, and even ended up with a Master's degree in Physics, but even he admits that he comes down with his own kind of math anxiety. Now, he works as a programmer, building predictive models, but he encounters many engineers who don't have a basic understanding of fundamental math concepts, like calculus or linear algebra. Seeking to rectify this, he wrote a book called Math for Programmers, which methodically explains mathematical concepts using real-world examples. He hopes to be able to teach math to many more people.

Paul emphasizes that, although thinking of mathematics can be intimidating, it's not different than working on any other skill. If you decide to go weight lifting, you start with a 10 pound weight, then a 15 pound one, and on and on. Similarly, with math, if you train on problems that are simpler, future problems will build upon the techniques you've honed. The appeal for gaining math skills is almost analogous to that of programming: there is always a right and final answer. Just as a compiler determines how a program works and whether a syntax is valid, taking in input and producing output, so too is math deterministic. Fundamentally, better mental acuity with math can help teach you how to consider the behaviors of complicated systems.

For people interested in studying math more closely, Paul advises students to not be discouraged by problems which appear hard. It can be best to pick a problem that you are naturally interested in, which will lead to a general willingness to try and solve it. Similarly, he'll also take a math concept and turn it into a program, which has helped him reason about flow and patterns much more clearly in the past.

Links from this episode

• Tachyus helps energy producers optimize their production
• Math for Programmers is the book Paul wrote -- listen for a 40% off code