First, a disclaimer: while my degree was in computer engineering, I have never, in my 27-year career, seen a position that was titled computer engineer. I’ve always worked as a software engineer. That being said, I’ve never used, as far as I can recall, any advanced math whatsoever my whole career. No linear algebra, no calculus, none of it. (Possibly a handful of times I’ve done some advanced algebra.) That’s not to say that I regret taking the courses, as painful as they were. I came to the conclusion when I graduated from college that the purpose of college is not primarily to impart facts but to teach you how to think. It’s as if your brain was a muscle, and you were bodybuilding. In bodybuilding, you don’t accomplish anything by lifting all those dead weights except to build up your muscles. The same goes for college.
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