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Comment by Isinlor | Hacker News Reader

Is learning whole encyclopedia and 10 natural languages useful to be a good computer scientist?

Yes, of course! Is it the best way to spend your time having the goal in mind? Maybe not.

The issue with "learning math" is that there is more math being created than you are able to learn.

"a good computer scientist" is very broad.

Does it mean "a good 3D engines programmer" - then probably you want to know linear algebra, things like quaternions etc.

Does it mean "a good browser front end developer" - then probably you want to invest your time somewhere else, maybe web design, learning how to sketch.

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I came here to say this. It depends on how you define Computer Scientist.

In the academic sense of the word, and in "low level" software development fields like game engines, databases, systems, embedded, etc knowing math is invaluable.

In "high level" software development like web frontends, apps, scripting and automation math is not essential. Knowing math helps but it's not a requirement.

Something has always irked me about the broad use of terms like Computer Scientist or Software Engineer. For example, I have a bachelor degree in "Applied Information Technology" with a focus on software development. Math was never a priority in my education. From age 16 until I graduated at 22 I never had more than 2 hours of math classes in any given week.

I am not an "engineer" in any way and I don't call myself that. But when I describe what I do (mostly backend, api, cloud architecture and systems programming) I somehow always get lumped in the "software engineer" category.

What do you call yourself?

Software developer

No one means "3D engines programmer", "browser front end developer" nor anything ending with "engineer" when they use the word "computer scientist". The fact that I have to explain this is rather shocking.

There is plenty, probably majority, of people doing computer science degrees because they want to become software developer without any intention of pursuing tenure.

The same way as data scientist position has mostly nothing to do with publishing in peer reviewed venues with high impact factor.

"data scientist" is an conflated title created by business people in this industry. The word scientist has a specific meaning which is doing original research.

Also people in this thread seem to think a "computer science" undergrad degree is somehow related to computer scientist the working title. My understanding is that you start the pathway to a science career with a grad degree, like you start an engineering career with a job. Before the job or the grad degree you're no engineer/scientist

So what do they mean when they use the word "computer scientist"?

research, the hint is "scientist".

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