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Ask HN: What are the reasons not to go into computer science?

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Re: Ask HN: What are the reasons not to go into computer science?

#11

Post by gosu »

It's true that, if you learn to enjoy CS-related work, it's thrilling and rewarding. You'll find dazzling solutions to interesting problems, and have a blast doing it. But as respectable a craft as CS work is, does your output really improve anyone's life? Probably not, and it likely even contributes to some mild social ill. And once the dopamine wears off, have the lonely hours spent solving fun puzzles in front of a screen been a good use of your time on Earth?

I'd still recommend a CS major, but I urge perspective.

Re: Ask HN: What are the reasons not to go into computer science?

#12

Post by nostrademons »

dsymonds wrote: post #6
gschiller wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to be an entrepreneur and CS seems the clearest path to that.

That seems like a terrible approach. Why not major in business or economics?

CS is a better major for an entrepreneur than either business or economics. Marc Andreesen recommends engineering or other hard sciences:

http://sloentrepreneur.wordpress.com/2008/02/10/the-pmarca-g...

(My former cofounder was a psych undergrad + MBA, my girlfriend is a business undergrad + MBA, and I've got many more startup offers from people wanting to found companies with me than either of them.)

Re: Ask HN: What are the reasons not to go into computer science?

#14

Post by dkrich »

For better or for worse, we live in a society where higher education does not teach you a trade. That is, when you leave college and start your first job it really won't matter too much whether you studied CS, Philosophy, or the Harlem Renaissance because you'll spend the first six months of your working life learning how to do the job anyway.

To state the obvious, I would say don't major in Computer Science if you aren't genuinely interested in it. There are many different kinds of businesses to start and simply knowing how to program doesn't really make you any more likely to found a successful one. Even if it did, you don't need to study it in college. While I believe that learning the fundamentals in college is the best way, a person of above-average intelligence with a desire to learn could become a serviceable programmer in a matter of months with nothing more than a computer and a few books.

When you start college you do crazy things like envision a path to success that relies on specific factors that you will soon realize really didn't make any difference. In short, your major will have a predictive rate of about 0% of an impact on your success after college and that's especially true if you are going to start a business.

Re: Ask HN: What are the reasons not to go into computer science?

#16

Post by shubhamjain »

nostrademons wrote: post #10

I assume you're actually thinking of going into software engineering as a profession, and not just getting a CS degree and doing something else. The latter can actually be pretty useful in a variety of scientific, technical, and management fields, except you have to pair it with something. Anyway, here's my list (for reference, I'm 32, have roughly 9 years of professional experience all of it in software, and current…

The egos. A large segment of the software world seems to be composed of people who keep trying to one-up each others in their knowledge of esoteric trivia, and then once they've found something they know that nobody else does, suddenly everyone else is an idiot. /////

I have tried a lot but the being arrgant when you meet somene with similar skills is so tough to avoid. Plus the sheer chauvinism against non-techie people, makes me feel guilty too. What do you suggest to avoid the ego factor?

Re: Ask HN: What are the reasons not to go into computer science?

#17

Post by nostrademons »

shubhamjain wrote: post #16
nostrademons wrote: post #10

I assume you're actually thinking of going into software engineering as a profession, and not just getting a CS degree and doing something else. The latter can actually be pretty useful in a variety of scientific, technical, and management fields, except you have to pair it with something. Anyway, here's my list (for reference, I'm 32, have roughly 9 years of professional experience all of it in software, and current…

The egos. A large segment of the software world seems to be composed of people who keep trying to one-up each others in their knowledge of esoteric trivia, and then once they've found something they know that nobody else does, suddenly everyone else is an idiot. ///// I have tried a lot but the being arrgant when you meet somene with similar skills is so tough to avoid. Plus the sheer chauvinism against non-techie pe…

It comes from insecurity. A lot (not all, this is a gross generalization) of tech people are really insecure, because a profession where you don't have to deal with people tends to attract a lot of people who don't like to deal with people, and one of the most common reasons for not liking people is being insecure about our own worth.

The best way to avoid this is to not tie your self-worth to your technological prowess. Discover what you like to do (beyond programming), and go do it, and be willing to put yourself out there and enjoy things even if you don't get any outside approval for it. Oftentimes this makes people really anxious; therapists or talking things over with a solid circle of friends can be helpful for discharging the anxiety, but really you pretty much have to lean into it and accept that being good with computers is not going to make you better than anyone else or solve any other problems you might have.

Re: Ask HN: What are the reasons not to go into computer science?

#18

Post by digitalzombie »

It's a sausage fest in college (especially upper divisions) and your social skills can take a nose dive.

The lack of social skills, assuming that you don't have one and didn't gain much of it during college, will carry over to your negotiation skills when you look for jobs.

Depending on which area of software engineer you are going in, your tech skills have a half life of supposely 2.5 years. Meaning there will always be something to learn, dev black berry for a long time now? Ha! Iphone and Android is the shizzle now. Cold fusion? Well, now, it's PHP & Ruby.

There is a decent chance you will work under an idiot that lied his/her way to where he/she is now and will back stab you (very high chance if you work in the public sector ie gov,fed,state). Ah! Politics, it's a bitch and it can be in any profession really, but I feel it's more pronounce in this profession. Especially, well the dev team is a few developers and you're like how the fuck is this guy paying more than me and I'm doing most of the work? Eventually, if you catch on, you'll quit and learn how to embellish and get better at interviews.

Ah this lead to ego! It fucking hurts that someone is getting paid more than you but you know more than them. Yeah sure you can say you're just whiny. But really, you can constantly feel like you're being underpaid and under appreciated.

Re: Ask HN: What are the reasons not to go into computer science?

#19

Post by brudgers »

gschiller wrote: post #5
brudgers wrote: post #3

A girl I dated in high-school wound up with a degree in agriculture - she wasn't from a rural area, and none of her grandparents had even lived on a farm - at my age that's going back to the early part of the 20th century. She had started out as a math major. The biggest negative for a young person is pursuing something they have no passion for. The dilemma of college for most young people is that they have little id…

I want to be an entrepreneur and CS seems the clearest path to that.

The clearest path to entrepreneurship is starting and running a business - e.g. mowing lawns, selling tee shirts, etc. The blunt truth is it also helps to come from wealth and have entrepreneurs in the family tree.

That's not to say that there are not other paths, but entrepreneurship works well in the Bill Gates model - he and Allen were in the software business in high school.

A business which fell out of their passion for programming. If Gates had followed the money as a teenager, he probably would have gone into the family business - law.

Good luck.

Re: Ask HN: What are the reasons not to go into computer science?

#20

Post by keiferski »

nostrademons wrote: post #12
dsymonds wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems like a terrible approach. Why not major in business or economics?

CS is a better major for an entrepreneur than either business or economics. Marc Andreesen recommends engineering or other hard sciences: http://sloentrepreneur.wordpress.com/2008/02/10/the-pmarca-g... (My former cofounder was a psych undergrad + MBA, my girlfriend is a business undergrad + MBA, and I've got many more startup offers from people wanting to found companies with me than either of them.)

If and ONLY if you want to start a tech startup. CS is relatively useless if you want to start a restaurant, fashion label, or virtually any business not related to technology.
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