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Poll: CS, music, or math - which major produces better programmers?

1 points by yters ↗ HN
I've heard/read in a couple places that studying music and math creates better programmers than studying computer science. For those of you who've seen the code produced by people from all of these backgrounds, which major, if any, seems to produce the programmers who write the best code?

I've seperated music and math since there may be a difference between those two as well.

4 comments

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hs
it doesn't matter, merit can't buy passion
smoody
true. true.

i used to TA for a comp sci course. a well respected music school (Eastman School of Music) was affiliated with our university, so i'd get classical musicians in my section frequently. computer science concepts did not come easier to them than others. just my two cents.

yters
I'd expect math people and CS people to get the theoretical stuff better. But, what I've heard is that musically trained people are better at coming up with good design.
qhoxie
All else equal, in a program with good curriculum and instruction, CS will come out on top. That is if you are not looking at an average, because CS produces plenty of terrible coders. Those who enjoy coding enough to switch from music or focus from math will likely be better programmers on average.