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[–] 16437101? ago 

Do you think that high-level math is harder than general programming?

I do, for any given programming problem ("write a piece of software that does X") I can pretty quickly see how to tackle it in my head. Not so for math problems, which for me are more of a trial-and-error approach where I will try a bunch of things from my mental math toolkit ("ok let's try integrating by parts… nope all right let's try a Laplace transform… nope etc") and very quickly I'll run out of things to try. Also I'm amazed by people who come up with new mathematical tools for doing things, I can't even begin to do that. But writing a novel code for solving a given problem seems easy to me.

It has the same mystique to me that other people see in programming. But I wonder if I just applied myself more in that area it would lose some of that aura. I've noticed when I grind math I get a lot better temporarily, so maybe it's a use it or lose it thing to an extent.

You're probably right. I think to innovate in math you need to spend years learning what's already been done so the payoff is way out of my temporal view so to speak. OTOH innovating with code seems way faster, see a problem -> write up a solution. Dunno if I am explaining it well.

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[–] 16437097? ago 

I think it depends entirely on the strengths of the person doing it. High level math is pure logic, programming is logic+linguistics but the logic is easier. If you're much better at logic you'll find math easier, if you're decent at both you'll be better at programming.