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As someone who has spent most of his adult life recovering from a math phobia (due largely to poor teachers in middle and high school) and enjoys programming as a hobby, had I read this article when I was exploring whether or not I had the aptitude/background for programming this would have turned me off entirely.

I agree with the others that this article seems to overstate the requirements.

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So, are you still afraid of math?

No. Post-college, I didn't need it for my job and I discovered programming - at least at the level that I was enjoying it - was as much, if not more, about logic and breaking problems into pieces. Despite that my lack of math ability felt increasingly like an albatross around my neck. In the same way that one might feel they're missing out by not studying history.

It was only after coming across a quote from Charles Darwin where he mentioned that one of his regrets was that he didn't study math more thoroughly. And that because of that there were entire "conversations" he was missing out on. For some reason I found that both liberating and motivating.

"Me and Charles Darwin, we're not so different you and I." ;-)

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