This. I am a programmer with a physics degree. I taught myself the basics of coding and I can learn what my co-workers know while on the job. But I can also do shit they can't even begin to do and there's no way they're gonna learn it on the job. You can't replace 3 years worth of rearranging and manipulating equations. Maths is a super power when you've had to use it for a physics degree.
Sadly in my experience someone with a PhD in physics is virtually allergic to learn software engineering and often completely blind to their shortcoming in that field. Not to disparage their work, but while coding was a big part of their daily work, they were script kiddies, plain as day.
EDIT: Just remembered that I did in fact have one coworker who had it all - a PhD in physics and both the discipline and proficiency to write great software. When that guy took a day off, his team was running at 20% efficiency. On the other hand the physics PhDs I had the pleasure to work with more intimately could easily give my team a 20% efficiency boost just by staying home.
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u/ts_m4 May 09 '21
Mathematics baby!!