I want to be more of an administrator/motivator, but I'm floundering in the dark as to how to go about gathering the necessary skills.
Well, then I reiterate my comment about what mathematics background you really need: All the more so. You don't need calculus to be a programmer; there's mathematical intuition and there's "coding intuition", and both are built up by practice but they are quite different skills. And a manager needs even less to know the mathematical details.
So, you may be stuck with calculus classes due to the course structure of your school, but if at your current level you can struggle through and get acceptable grades, I suggest that your marginal unit of effort is likely better spent coding. (If you're looking at a fail, or at insufficient preparation for a tougher course next year, that's a different question.) And I strongly suggest that you do not want to take courses labeled "computer science", except perhaps a very introductory one to cover data structures and big-O analysis; you want "software engineering". Possibly the courses you are taking as prereqs can be reconsidered in light of this.
Hi everyone,
I am graduating as a philosophy student shortly, and want to pursue computer science / programming/ something-of-that-sort.
I am currently taking some basic math (calculus) and physics (mechanics) courses in order to obtain pre-requesits, and to develop a basic framework. My problem is that I can grasp concepts and ideas, but when it comes to solving specific problems with actual numbers, I seem to shut down. Specifically, it takes me much more time (read "hours") to solve problems that ought to take 10 minutes. This is a particularly bad thing on tests and exams.
I believe that the difficulty I am having stems from so little exposure to symbolic reasoning in the past 5-6 years. I am looking for resources, techniques and advice to "turbocharge" (to use CFAR terminology) my ability to absorb and deeply comprehend technical material, so that solving problems becomes second nature.
Thank you so much for your time,
Jeremy