> We really need to quit forcing programmers to take calculus.
I used Calculus one day to solve a random business problem.
I noticed the pattern was a Taylor Series.
It had been over 10 years since I learned it, but I immediately recognized the pattern.
I solved it via brute force on Excel. It took over 50 pages of Excel calculations to reach the answer. (About 2500 lines of calculations, which is easy to do in Excel.)
And once I noticed the pattern, I was able to turn it into a formula.
And now, I had a one-liner formula, that I was able to use to solve my business problem. Then, I plugged this formula into Excel too, and now I had a little Excel app that could get the answer for me.
Did this make me any money? No. Did this directly make the business any money? No. But, it did help the business by now having a mathematical formula that they can use to solve that specific question, if another customer asks for it in the future, specifically during the initial sales process.
And all this, because I had been forced to study Calculus in college.
I used Calculus one day to solve a random business problem.
I noticed the pattern was a Taylor Series.
It had been over 10 years since I learned it, but I immediately recognized the pattern.
I solved it via brute force on Excel. It took over 50 pages of Excel calculations to reach the answer. (About 2500 lines of calculations, which is easy to do in Excel.)
And once I noticed the pattern, I was able to turn it into a formula.
And now, I had a one-liner formula, that I was able to use to solve my business problem. Then, I plugged this formula into Excel too, and now I had a little Excel app that could get the answer for me.
Did this make me any money? No. Did this directly make the business any money? No. But, it did help the business by now having a mathematical formula that they can use to solve that specific question, if another customer asks for it in the future, specifically during the initial sales process.
And all this, because I had been forced to study Calculus in college.