Earlier quoted context omitted.
What the hell? How did you respond to that?
I guess there's a lot I could have said, but what I actually said was "oh", and left.
Do you still work there?
Why do so few people major in computer science? (2017)
401–410 of 452 posts
Re: Why do so few people major in computer science? (2017)
#402A few observations I have seen(US Based): - In college there were basically no women in any of my classes, like 1 or 2 in a class of 30-40. Not having an entire gender being interested in a field(generally speaking) makes numbers overall very low. - In a Java class I took in college, it was standing room only for the first two sessions, after 3 weeks the class was 70% reduced, by the end of the class it was about 25%…
> In a Java class I took in college, it was standing room only for the first two sessions, after 3 weeks the class was 70% reduced, by the end of the class it was about 25% of its original size. CS is hard, lets be honest(for most people), to excel you have to love it or be mathematically inclined. I don't understand how a college survives 75% of their students dropping out like that? And do they not interview and as…
> I don't understand how a college survives 75% of their students dropping out like that?
Students pay upfront.
Re: Why do so few people major in computer science? (2017)
#403Earlier quoted context omitted.
I guess there's a lot I could have said, but what I actually said was "oh", and left.
and that's why we are a low status profession... Instead of digging your heels, and telling her your speech will be much more beneficial to both the students and the company, you did the typical nerdy thing and avoided confrontation and just left
That assumes plenty of time to think about what happened and formulate the best response. That's rarely possible in the roughly 1200 milliseconds available for a timely reply to a perceived insult.
I think I'd only be able to do that if I'd had the same conversation previously. Come to think of it, sounds like just about every tech interview I've ever had.
Re: Why do so few people major in computer science? (2017)
#404When I learned coding, CS wasn't really a "thing." I came up from the hardware end of things (EE). Today, the only downside of this seems to be that I never learned all the binary tree stuff (BTrees haven't played any role in the type of coding I've been doing for the last three decades), so I don't fare well in employment exams. Otherwise, I'm actually thrilled at the way my software development education has gone.…
CS has been a thing since the 60s
Re: Why do so few people major in computer science? (2017)
#405Earlier quoted context omitted.
Right, a lot of FAANG companies' offices look like kindergartens. I get that all of the perks are "cool" to someone, but to me it's just embarrassing.
It also doesn't help that the perceived uniform of the programmer is a hoodie or an ironic t-shirt and chinos style of pants or similar regalia. Like, that just doesn't look cool. I've been saying this for years. It's no wonder it doesn't look sexy nor command much respect. Especially not compared to a guy wearing a well tailored suit. Sure, it feels good, but that's the same rationale for wearing crocs. You feel gre…
I get the digs at the other clothes, but what exactly is wrong with khaki pants? Which is what I assume you mean by "chinos."
Re: Why do so few people major in computer science? (2017)
#406Earlier quoted context omitted.
At which point you bang your head into the wall because the fix is so bloody obvious. :-)
And that can be demoralizing in itself. Early in my career, after make a stupid 'single character mistake' that broke my entire program, I started to think "maybe I'm not cut out for this".
For a long time, I've had the superstition that if I don't have to fix a couple of syntax errors (or other triviality) initially, it's a bad omen and there's probably some much more significant logic error lurking. Any time something compiles/runs for the first time without adjustment, I get nervous.
Re: Why do so few people major in computer science? (2017)
#407A few observations I have seen(US Based): - In college there were basically no women in any of my classes, like 1 or 2 in a class of 30-40. Not having an entire gender being interested in a field(generally speaking) makes numbers overall very low. - In a Java class I took in college, it was standing room only for the first two sessions, after 3 weeks the class was 70% reduced, by the end of the class it was about 25%…
>In college there were basically no women in any of my classes, like 1 or 2 in a class of 30-40
In high school, about half my AP CS class was girls, I think.
Maybe it's not so much that "an entire gender" is disinterested but that there was a tidal wave of people who wanted to get into programming after 2000 who were mostly male and changed the culture? And a lot of people, who were good at other things besides computers, said yuck and did something else.
It's easy to assume that when a group dominates a field that they must be better on average at the required skills, but it could be more a result of their lack of other skills.
Re: Why do so few people major in computer science? (2017)
#408A few observations I have seen(US Based): - In college there were basically no women in any of my classes, like 1 or 2 in a class of 30-40. Not having an entire gender being interested in a field(generally speaking) makes numbers overall very low. - In a Java class I took in college, it was standing room only for the first two sessions, after 3 weeks the class was 70% reduced, by the end of the class it was about 25%…
> In a Java class I took in college, it was standing room only for the first two sessions, after 3 weeks the class was 70% reduced, by the end of the class it was about 25% of its original size. CS is hard, lets be honest(for most people), to excel you have to love it or be mathematically inclined. I don't understand how a college survives 75% of their students dropping out like that? And do they not interview and as…
At my school, generally you would enroll in ~3-5 classes per semester. One or two of those classes would be your "main focus" for the semester, and then you might try to fill a breadth or take something that interests you. You would have a week or two at the beginning before your schedule is fixed to move around classes. So you're not dropping out - you're swapping an Intro to Programming class for something you think you'd get more value out of.
I've dropped classes ~45 minutes in to the first lecture because I just... didn't need to take it and wasn't enjoying the professor speak.
Re: Why do so few people major in computer science? (2017)
#409A few observations I have seen(US Based): - In college there were basically no women in any of my classes, like 1 or 2 in a class of 30-40. Not having an entire gender being interested in a field(generally speaking) makes numbers overall very low. - In a Java class I took in college, it was standing room only for the first two sessions, after 3 weeks the class was 70% reduced, by the end of the class it was about 25%…
> In a Java class I took in college, it was standing room only for the first two sessions, after 3 weeks the class was 70% reduced, by the end of the class it was about 25% of its original size. CS is hard, lets be honest(for most people), to excel you have to love it or be mathematically inclined. I don't understand how a college survives 75% of their students dropping out like that? And do they not interview and as…
Well it is 75% of a subset, computer science as oppossed to the whole college. That and they are largely a drop out of the class as opposed to the college. They mostly transfer to other easier "back up" majors.
Re: Why do so few people major in computer science? (2017)
#410Earlier quoted context omitted.
The observation re: engineers who never set foot in a machine shop is actually a real problem in industry, and a common cause of antagonism between engineers and the victims of their designs and drawings: machinists and fabricators. There's a huge class divide in engineering between designing the the thing and making the thing, despite the fact that the two activities might require equal skill in different ways, or t…
And, ironically, the better the school the more theoretically focused the curriculum tends to be. That said, I did take a manufacturing processes course (basically machine shop plus some related theory) undergrad and I did have project-based classes that involved actually designing and building things.
I think part of the reason is better schools are more selective and assume better students that will be able to pick up the shifting practice easier while the theory may last a lifetime for them. Needless to say the assumptions may not always hold.