Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why do so few people major in computer science?

danwang.co

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 627 posts

Re: Why do so few people major in computer science?

#131

Post by wallacoloo »

CM30 wrote: post #7

I still suspect it's this reason from the post: > You don’t need a CS degree to be a developer With another catch. Basically, a lot of people don't intend to go into the tech industry right away. No, they end up in it because it's one of the faster growing industries with decent financial prospects. So they learn something else, work in a different field for a bit (or a low paid retail job) then end up going into tec…

> You don’t need a CS degree to be a developer

And I think at least some of us observe this and think "I'll study a related tech field and then take a job that also uses CS - that will let me grow a wider skill set than if I just studied CS." Because it isn't too difficult to get exposed to CS basics while pursuing EE or math, etc, and a wider skill set can be a valuable thing to have - you generally have more freedom in the development of your career, more opportunities to shift around and prevent burnout/boredom, etc.

It would be interesting to build a matrix showing how degrees in each STEM field are tied to jobs in each STEM field. Because I suspect CS funnels much less into the other STEM fields than vice versa, providing a view where a CS degree is tied to a narrower line of work, and hence more at risk to future market changes.

Re: Why do so few people major in computer science?

#133

Post by GnarfGnarf »

Engineering, physics, math etc. differ from Comp. Sci. in one major respect (so I hear from colleagues).

If you invest a finite amount of hours in the first category, you are pretty much guaranteed you will have something to show for it. Not easy, not simple, but you will get results.

Comp. Sci. is a black hole. You can blow ten hours on an obscure logic error. Students know from experience that their tightly budgeted schedule can be wrecked, and they can miss deadlines for reasons that seem out of proportion with the payback. This impacts their other subjects as well.

BTW I've a 50-year career in IT. The sum total of my academic qualifications was 1 week of FORTRAN. The rest I learned on the job.

Re: Why do so few people major in computer science?

#134

Post by DoofusOfDeath »

mempko wrote: post #102
romanovcode wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it is also the only career which people try to inject diversity just for the sake of it. Maybe I just live in developer bubble and don't know any better, but I've never seen a movement like "Girls do Plumbing!", "Black girls construction bootcamp" or "Mining for equality!".

It's not "for the sake of it", diversity brings insanely great benefits. Lack of diversity is likely why most software produced by this industry is, well, shit.

> Lack of diversity is likely why most software produced by this industry is, well, sh@@.

Could you share the reasons you have for believing that?

Re: Why do so few people major in computer science?

#135

Post by terminalcommand »

fulafel wrote: post #54

What interesting things are going on in the field of CS from a scientific POV?

I'm not a computer scientist, but I'd say Quantum Computing, Crypto Currencies, Compression algorithms like HEVC, new programming paradigms as can be seen in Escher, the comeback of functional programming and microkernels seem interesting to me.

Re: Why do so few people major in computer science?

#136

Post by k__ »

Computer science has 2 parts many people consider hard.

Math and programming.

I was very bad at math, but I already learned programming in high school. This enabled me to do the programming classes without learning too much and put the saved time into math classes.

Also universities value students who are good at programming, because they are cheap labour for their projects. Seemed to me that only "Oh you will work for 3-6 months for me and all I have to do is let you graduate? I'm sold!"

;)

Re: Why do so few people major in computer science?

#137

Post by khyryk »

This is just my experience, but I know that many people weren't enthused by the fact that computer science classes were absolutely packed with people. Obviously this depends on the school, but if class sizes of 200+ persist even after the first few intro courses, it'll whittle down the number of people pursing the major for a variety of reasons, such as poorer quality instruction and the inability of those who need a bit of help to get it as the line outside the TA's office is in the dozens.

Re: Why do so few people major in computer science?

#138

Post by literallycancer »

kutkloon7 wrote: post #79

I majored in computer science, and I don't feel like I've learned anything. Every time there was an opportunity to learn something cool (mathematical theory behind cryptography, assembly language, details of a processor, the cache, or a communication protocol) or useful, it was glanced over as 'technical details'. Instead, I was introduced to many, many small topics (programming, graphics, databases, algorithms, user…

You did compilers/formal languages at least, right? Writing one from scratch is not trivial.

Re: Why do so few people major in computer science?

#139

Post by sgift »

kutkloon7 wrote: post #93
nxc18 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was your program? I suspect there is considerable variation. My program only required students to take the intro courses for all those topics, but students were expected to pick one or more areas of concentration. I wrote an operating system and a simulated CPU implementing (a subset of) a real-world ISA in my last semester - both comparatively in-depth things. Of course I did have to choose that, and in so doin…

Just a vanilla computer science program. I combined it with a math major. I think the program at my uni was especially soft; there were no math courses at all. I suspect it's a bit better at a 'technical university' (I do my masters at one). I think the electrical engineers at my new uni are on par with the computer scientists at programming (which is basically the one and only skill you learn in my CS program), or e…

I'm not sure if no math should be a source of envy or pity for me (probably neither) - in my computer science program each semester included at least one math course. No exceptions.

Re: Why do so few people major in computer science?

#140

Post by taway_1212 »

nickthemagicman wrote: post #120
djsumdog wrote: post #30

I'm glad I got a full CS degree, but I knew several people who dropped to the business versions (often called MIS or CIS depending on your school) and learned a lot of the basics of programming and web front ends without more the hard core algorithms and foundation work. As I read the into, I think the author touched on a lot of the reasons I was starting to think of. A lot of people do boot camps (which are overpric…

I just wanted to say I agree with the field being "pretty horrible", for all the exact same reason you posted. Civil/Mechanical engs, Doctors, Lawyers, Nurses, Biologists etc, all get out in the field and/or get to work with people all the time... In tech it's the same flourescent lights, same keyboard, same office, same people...every day for 40 years? What kind of quality of life is that? It's literally the definit…

A lot of engineers on /r/engineering complain about either being a 8 hour a day CAD monkey, or "being stuck in this stupid factory" or "constant travel is killing me" etc.

On a broader note, I don't believe a generally accessible job (i.e. not requiring some unique career path or tons of sacrifices beforehand) can be both well paid and rewarding. We're paid really well because we generate lots of value and we're relatively scarce, but at the end of the day we're just the requisite meat component in somebody's money making machine. It's bound to be not too pleasant.

Post reply on HN