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by aslkdjaslkdj 3229 days ago
If someone is studying computability or formal languages or algorithms or ML in a CS department, they don't really need to be programmers.
2 comments

My sister is a graduate student in Neuropsychology. As part of her graduate program, she was required to take a programming class; because programming is an important tool that she needs to be able to use to do her research.

Simmilarly, most research in CS will involve using programming as a tool, even if it is not the final product. The problem is that in CS, no one thinks to require the graduate students to take basic programming classes.

> As part of her graduate program, she was required to take a programming class; because programming is an important tool that she needs to be able to use to do her research.

But for students focusing in complexity, they may not need to program at all, so naturally it makes sense there would not be much emphasis on programming.

in my opinion they don't need to BE programmers but they need to be ABLE to program.

http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=398

relevant song by scott aaronson