my mother should have been a programmer
My father is very smart. He was an electrical engineer. He used calculus in normal worklife to explain and create. He built things that measure things that measure (very small) things. He can reduce a problem down to its component parts, solve it, then express the solution in its most elemental, elegant form, and implement it the smallest possible space.
My mother is very smart. She was a history teacher and is a writer. She sees the interaction between culture, technology, personalities and how it drives events. She sees patterns in history - the ways it repeats. She can present a thesis succinctly, then validate it by showing the contributing factors and logical conclusion. She rapidly organizes information to make it understandable; she explains complex relationships through simple concepts that build on each other.
Which of these people would make a better programmer?
I have often thought it is my mother. Good programming is very much about organizing information, and not so very much about using calculus or fitting into a small package. It is also about providing a map for how to understand and approach both the problem and solution.
But of course that ability to understand and solve hard problems and strip down the solution to its most efficient and elemental form is so critical. Maybe it is my father.
Maybe my mother was really intended to draw the boxes with lines and arrows between them, and my father to take that concept and apply it - to understand and address the ramifications it introduces.
Come to think of it, I guess that kind of sums up their marriage. No wonder their combined lives have been so successful.
Posted at
01:31PM Nov 14, 2006
by Julia Harper in Personal |
theme and variations