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Ask HN: Should I drop my CS major to pursue being a self-taught web dev?

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Re: Ask HN: Should I drop my CS major to pursue being a self-taught web dev?

#11

Post by tobobo »

ziyadb wrote: post #9

I have been there. The last semester I enrolled at was fall 2010, about 6 months ago. I did not find any value in pursuing a degree that contained subjects I had no interest in whatsoever (my major was Information and communication technology), I chose not to enroll during the spring semester in favor of attaining professional certifications (Cisco CCIE) as I had taken an interest in them and attained "lower level ce…

Yeah, this sort of "what if" thinking can be really hard. Thus far, all my employment opportunities have come from resources outside of school, and I have no reason to believe that that will change anytime soon, but as you mentioned... these things can change often and unpredictably.

Regarding the music major: Music is very important to me, and at the university I'm at I'm surround by people who inspire me to do my best work. I get inspired to program by reading books, HN, /r/programming, etc, not by sitting in my classes.

Re: Ask HN: Should I drop my CS major to pursue being a self-taught web dev?

#12

Post by tobobo »

rdouble wrote: post #10

I went to one of those schools. Course quality in the CS department can be very hit or miss. You are right in that the instructors often have no actual programming experience. In this situation, the opposite of what you are thinking is true: automata theory is probably a better class than databases, because you don't need to be a good programmer to teach automata theory. A database class taught by a guy who doesn't p…

I would totally go for a minor if my school offered them, but they don't, instead making it slightly easier to double major (about a third of students do so).

I've yet to have an assignment that was too far beyond a proof of concept. Students who wish to pursue such projects are encourage to do so during the summer as extracurricular projects.

Re: Ask HN: Should I drop my CS major to pursue being a self-taught web dev?

#13

Post by a3camero »

My anecdote:

I have a H.BSc. in Biomedical Sciences and my only university course was Intro to Programming.

I've worked as a programmer at start-up in Waterloo, won a series of international programming competitions that had a decent number of CS competitors and done a fair bit of contract programming for some decent sized organizations.

Re: Ask HN: Should I drop my CS major to pursue being a self-taught web dev?

#14

Post by abbasmehdi »

My philosophy is pretty simple: Don't major in things that teach you "How" something is done, go to school for majors in "Why” things are done the way they are (exception: degrees that give certification to practice or a license - like CPA or MD etc.).

I started with a business degree, and noticed we were being taught processes like how to create a balance sheet etc, things I could learn myself by looking it up online or reading the textbook, no added value from schooling, so 2 semesters later I switched to Economics, which talks about why people do this over that, why governments do that over this etc. Then I decided to major in CS, and started a new bachelor's degree, noticed again I could learn everything they were teaching me myself and it was far too much theory that would be useful “later”, so I switched to Electrical and Computer Engineering which was focused more on building stuff in teams – which was why I got into a tech major in the first place.

Ask yourself what you want out of it – seems like you want to build stuff – universities don’t focus on that, vocational and technical institutes do.

Re: Ask HN: Should I drop my CS major to pursue being a self-taught web dev?

#15

Post by tobobo »

abbasmehdi wrote: post #14

My philosophy is pretty simple: Don't major in things that teach you "How" something is done, go to school for majors in "Why” things are done the way they are (exception: degrees that give certification to practice or a license - like CPA or MD etc.). I started with a business degree, and noticed we were being taught processes like how to create a balance sheet etc, things I could learn myself by looking it up onlin…

Thanks. I've definitely considered the possibility of going back to school somewhere else after I graduate to pursue a tech education more aligned with my own goals, maybe immediately after. Perhaps the answer to this question would be a little more intuitive if I had a more zen-like approach to life, rather than thinking about it all in terms of cause, effect, and "the way things are."

Re: Ask HN: Should I drop my CS major to pursue being a self-taught web dev?

#16

Post by CyberFonic »

Your CS major is like learning the scales, progression of chords, elements of harmony, etc. Some of the subjects may not appear relevant, but they form the foundations for the future. The best employers will not hire candidates without suitable qualifications AND suitable experience.

On a slightly different note (ha ha) have you looked at LiveCoding and other real-time fusion of programming and musical performance?

Re: Ask HN: Should I drop my CS major to pursue being a self-taught web dev?

#17

Post by tobobo »

CyberFonic wrote: post #16

Your CS major is like learning the scales, progression of chords, elements of harmony, etc. Some of the subjects may not appear relevant, but they form the foundations for the future. The best employers will not hire candidates without suitable qualifications AND suitable experience. On a slightly different note (ha ha) have you looked at LiveCoding and other real-time fusion of programming and musical performance?

A little! I've really wanted to get into Supercollider but... haven't had the time. Do you have any suggestions for other resources/software I should look into?

Re: Ask HN: Should I drop my CS major to pursue being a self-taught web dev?

#18

Post by [deleted] »

abbasmehdi wrote: post #14

My philosophy is pretty simple: Don't major in things that teach you "How" something is done, go to school for majors in "Why” things are done the way they are (exception: degrees that give certification to practice or a license - like CPA or MD etc.). I started with a business degree, and noticed we were being taught processes like how to create a balance sheet etc, things I could learn myself by looking it up onlin…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Should I drop my CS major to pursue being a self-taught web dev?

#19

Post by bendmorris »

tobobo wrote: post #5
robfitz wrote: post #4

On the one hand, I haven't used a resume since my college internships (5 years founding startups, then freelancing through the network built up during the startups). On the other, I still think it's worth the time. Being forced to write big, gnarly programs (like a compiler or collaborative text editor or puzzle AI) will give you experience that you'll never get from tutorials online about dealing with big, scary cod…

You commented before my edit, but everything you've said is still very relevant. Thanks. The thing about the big, gnarly programs thing is that I don't think that's what happens at our CS department. The older kids in the department always talk about how the teachers can't actually code too far beyond the level required to teach the intro classes because the focus in the higher level classes is not on programming but…

You seem to have a misunderstanding about what an undergrad CS degree is about. It's not vocational training. If you want that, you can probably find something better at a community college.

If you want to "build things that people actually use," do it. No one's stopping you, and there's not a college major for that - you just do it. Most bright CS majors learn programming on their own time. Completing a CS degree will give you skills and knowledge that will help with your goal but building web apps is not the focus and it's not supposed to be.

Re: Ask HN: Should I drop my CS major to pursue being a self-taught web dev?

#20

Post by bendmorris »

abbasmehdi wrote: post #14

My philosophy is pretty simple: Don't major in things that teach you "How" something is done, go to school for majors in "Why” things are done the way they are (exception: degrees that give certification to practice or a license - like CPA or MD etc.). I started with a business degree, and noticed we were being taught processes like how to create a balance sheet etc, things I could learn myself by looking it up onlin…

This seems backwards - you didn't like business because it "taught you how to build things" (i.e. balance sheets) and liked econ for the theory...then you didn't like CS for the theory and switched to ECE to learn to build things.
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