A clarification from the one who equated math w/computers

[Steve Owens <uso01 -at- EAGLE -dot- UNIDATA -dot- COM>]

> Steve, I've made it through the end of Friday in my reading
> catching-up, and all I can say is, "Wow, you guys were really
> having fun while I was gone!"  I guess I'm glad that I could
> not participate because you did a good job of debating the issue.

        Glad you feel I represented you properly :-)

> One thing that should be cleared up is the difference between
> "computer" classes, which I interpret to mean classes in using
> software, and "computer science" classes.  I still argue that
> the same types of persons who are attracted to math are attracted
> to computer science.  I would surmise that it has to do with
> an attraction to problem solving.  There are both males and females
> in this category, but my experience has been that more males are
> attracted to this activity.  If I am wrong and things have changed
> in the last 6 years or so, then I say, "Great!"

        Hm... I suspect that the close relations between math and
computer science are in a large part responsible (when you get way
up in the stratosphere of theoretical computer science, you're dealing
with some very heavy math - one of my friends getting his PhD in
compsci came from a math background and did all sorts of theoretical
dataflow analysis and finite automata stuff).

        I do agree that more males are attracted to problem-solving
than females, but I think this is a cultural effect.  Contrast my
father and mother: he is extremely handy with a variety of tools and
crafts, but he grew up in a doctor's household, where they called
somebody to fix something if it broke; she grew up in a more plebian
household, where her father or older brother fixed anything that
broke, or it didn't get fixed.  While my mother doesn't have the
skills my father acquired, she does have a much stronger "fix it and
get on with it" attitude.

        I think this stuff is changing, but slowly.  Changes in the
real techie fringes, like computer science, will either lag behind
until mainline cultural changes filter out there, or forge ahead,
leading the change.

Steven J. Owens
uso01 -at- unidata -dot- com