Email: Thoughts about direction of computer science / “What most schools don’t teach” video

Master Malstrom,

Thank you for the interesting post! As a software engineer who works at a senior level, and someone who graduated summa cum laude in computer science from a top 25 university (according to China, anyway: http://www.shanghairanking.com/FieldENG2012.html. Haha I have to laugh at how they come up with this stuff), I have some thoughts about it.

 

Let me tell you, I agree with you completely! That video made me sick! Coders are modern-day rockstars? Talk about self-absorption and narcissism to the extreme! Do these people really thing they are interesting to anyone else besides themselves!? If I hadn’t already gotten my degree, this video would have been enough to make me jump ship on getting a CSci degree. Preaching to kids that they will be “rockstars” for being a coder is just all kinds of wrong. The end result is just begging for oversaturation of the field. News flash: if everyone does what you can do, you’re not a rockstar.

 

I’ve worked with clients at some places like the “hip” ones in the video, where HR needs to be “cutting edge” to “fawn over” the “limited” talent pool, you have guys walking around shoeless, laying around on couches and playing games, one wonders how good productivity could possible be when you’re smelling the farts of the guy on the couch next to you. You’re right, there is this air of superiority about it all. I notice it at these “hip” engineering workplaces, it’s done in a way that exudes superiority. I for one would hate to work at a place like that regularly. If for no other reason than the people that work there are not interesting. They are all self-absorbed and think the mainstream is “inferior.”…. hey, it’s kind of like they’re the hardcore of the work world! My place of employment is NOT like that at all. We’re business casual, and thank God we don’t attract all the primadonnas out there.

 

So to your comment about people trying to make computer science less a science and more of a LIFESTYLE or PHILOSOPHY, I’ll also throw in RELIGION with that too. From what I’ve seen, there is a growing contingent of people in these departments who think the only value that can be obtained out of life is them trying to be some “genius” that can further science. The ones trying to do this, especially the ones at core of the big schools (I graduated just three years ago), they don’t have a life outside of CSE. And they think YOU shouldn’t either, if you’re worth your salt as a student. In the end, I think it comes down to the fact that people seem to need religion. The CSE zealots at the university are all atheists. Even though they don’t worship “God”, they need to replace it with something. I think you could probably extend this pattern out to many different segments of academia. It seems that all of them fail to grasp that the most influential shapers of the world didn’t adhere to any such nonsense, and had varied life experiences which allowed them to “connect the dots”… as Mr. Jobs so once eloquently stated (even though I have respect for Mr. Jobs, I hate Apple, especially its “culture.” I think Apple’s marketing has been a big driver behind all this CSci e-peen nonsense).

 

Anyway, I thought I was driving to more of a point here… but I guess it turned out to be musings more than anything else… well, thanks again for the post!

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I’ve found a way to shut up computer science guys when they start doing their peacocking. Just say, “I don’t want to spend my life staring at a computer,” and they have no response. They automatically assume computers are the zenith of all technology and everyone wants to look at the computer all day.

I remember the early computer science guys (I nearly almost became one of them). Computer science was not cool. It was dorky. The computer science guys were all dorky. Everyone knew this. The computer science dorks knew this too, but they enjoyed computers. Women wouldn’t give these dorks a chance.However, since the computer boom made these computer science guys money, women certainly do give them a chance today. Since computers are everywhere, mainstream media is very receptive of computers. Who doesn’t know about Bill Gates or Steve Jobs?I posted that video because a computer science student I know thinks it is ‘great’. He also adapted all the ‘computer science as culture’ persona. I contrast him to computer science people I knew before the 90s, and it is totally different. There was no ‘nerd culture’ back then. Instead, you had ‘Trekkies’ who kept watching Star Trek: The Next Generation when it was airing (and each new episode was a Major Event). They, of course, played computer games. Many of them got into computer science because of computer games and trying to design computer games. They also did pen and paper games and were voracious science fiction readers.Here’s the thing though. All those things were DORK back then. They were social pariahs. It was the opposite of cool. Everyone made fun of them. Despite swimming against the current, they won when computers went mainstream.

Above: This clip is twenty years ago from 1993. There was NOTHING cool about computers then. NOTHING.

The computer science people I know today are not shy about peacocking (where before they were quiet about what they did because no one understood it). It’s like they’ve invented a little universe where only they, and they alone, understand ‘technology’ and ‘math’ where no one else does. So, for fun, I bring up other technical areas and their reactions border on confusion.

“Industrial automation? What?”

Important technical skill. It is why so many companies are moving their production areas to Texas because of the technical schools in the area. They have people to hire who does those skills. I suspect computer science has been a vacuum that has sucked technically minded people from other fields. So these fields are paying luxurious amounts for those who have those skills. However, something like ‘industrial automation’ doesn’t seem as ‘sexy’ as computer science.

It’s not about what you want to do, it is about what society wants you to do. It’s another way of saying supply and demand. I’m curious about how long the demand for computer science people will be. Usually, the ‘cooler’ the degree, the more in decline its job prospects become.

The next ‘big boom’ will be from a profession that has very low ‘coolness’. Ask, “What is the most uncool job that requires skills?” Don’t say janitor because you don’t need skills for that. I know the answer. Does the reader?

I’ve noticed that the more enterprising beautiful women have already figured it out and are trying to land these guys before their value truly skyrockets.

Of course, the hardcore gamers won’t realize what is going on before it is too late. Being hardcore numbs one’s social awareness. This is why the hardcore must be destroyed.