Ask HN: Any tips for a college freshman enrolled in computer science?

Here is my advice to a young person interested in computer science:

https://htmx.org/essays/yes-and/

TLDR:

- Knowing how to do things with computers will likely remain useful in the future

- Learn fundamentals using AI as a TA rather than code generator

- You must write the code

- Learn skills beyond just CS, such as communication & business

- Plan on using personal contacts for a future job, the hiring market is busted

Invest in a good spatula.

Write the code yourself, use AI as a tutor. Learn to start a project from scratch and run it locally from your computer for any language you learn. Use a Linux laptop. Network and be socialable. Apply for internships. Learn deep learning and neutral networks if you have the opportunity, GPU programming. Really though, follow your interests.

You’re actually in a great position because you’re young and able to adapt to the world as it changes. Four years is an eternity in the job market, so what you’re seeing now is not predictive of what the job market will be like when you graduate.

I recommend keeping your eyes open and getting diverse viewpoints, with some caveats. Universities can be both fast and slow to adapt to changing trends. Your professors will undoubtedly be trying to integrate LLMs into the courses, but what they teach you will probably not entirely hit the mark about where the industry is going. You need to be gaining your own experience with something outside of classes, even if it’s useless little projects that you throw away. Remember to have fun in college, too, but balance that with doing a little more than just trying to get passing grades.

Avoid spending too much time in cynical spaces online that have turned into echo chambers about how we’re all doomed, this career is a dead end, and other negativities. Hacker News has a diverse set of opinions represented but it’s easy to get swept up in the hyper-negative views where we’re all going to be out of jobs and relying on UBI in a couple years. Online spaces have been excessively negative about this career for as long as I’ve been doing it, with the exact reasons changing from year to year. I knew a few people who enjoyed computers but talked themselves out of CS due to job market or online negativity things when they started college and all of them discovered that every career path has its pluses and minuses. It gets easier when you have some affinity for the work, though.

Have a broad range of interests outside of CS, and also develop interpersonal skills, not only for your own social enjoyment, but for interviews and compensation negotiations you will engage in during the coming years.