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Comment by lysace | Hacker News Reader

A random bee sting in class was the straw that broke my back in a mid 90s multivariable calculus lecture at a Swedish university where I was studying CS/EE. It lead to me dropping out. Went to a local internet/web software startup instead and a whole new world opened up.

Yes, I had been behind. I'm doing OK now :)

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The gate keeping of all that calculus for a CS degree is silly. Wasn’t the strongest at math, so grinned and bared but don’t really have a grasp of it anymore, and it would have been a shame to not have graduated with a CS degree because of it.

It's "grin and bear", as in grinning while bearing the load. The past tense would be "grinned and bore". FYI.

In Sweden it was a heritage from Ericsson. They needed/need engineers who knew that stuff. Supposedly. I should have picked something with less EE even though I also loved electronics.

It seems much better these days.

I dropped CS for calc 2

Same. And now I’m 15 years into my software engineering career and the only regret I have is that I didn’t spend more time with linear algebra.

I know right - that was the fun kind of math.

As an easily distracted high schooler just trying to enjoy one of his favorite classes, I discovered I could swat a flying bee dead with my folder. They were getting in through some gap in a window facing an alcove an I think we had four or five one year before Facilities fixed the problem.

It worked out, but you don’t really want to go squishing bees in an open area since they release chemicals that put their siblings on alert. If they stay put a glass and a piece of stiff paper are a better solution. But these were buzzing around my fellow students making everyone freak out.

basically you are Spiderman

Huh. How about that.

beeman

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