What every computer science major should know (2011)
matt.might.net
What every computer science major should know (2011)
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Re: What every computer science major should know (2011)
#2> must practice persuasively and clearly communicating their ideas to non-programmers
If you’re a CS major, panicking over this sort of “technical skills aren’t enough, you have to be a persuasive public speaker and effectively do management’s job for them”, people have been saying this since at least I started coding 30 years ago, and I don’t see any evidence that it’s actually true any more than it was back then - focus on technical ability, that’s a hell of a lot harder to come by than “powerpoint skills”.
Re: What every computer science major should know (2011)
#3> must practice persuasively and clearly communicating their ideas to non-programmers If you’re a CS major, panicking over this sort of “technical skills aren’t enough, you have to be a persuasive public speaker and effectively do management’s job for them”, people have been saying this since at least I started coding 30 years ago, and I don’t see any evidence that it’s actually true any more than it was back then -…
Powerpoint skills are where the money is, in large businesses that aren't FAANG. And probably even there, somewhat. I've come to this conclusion after seeing a lot of not-especially-smart-or-effective people-person folks with Powerpoint skills making serious money.
[EDIT] it also seems to me that good presentation and communication skills are how you achieve "you don't apply for jobs, jobs apply for you" status without top 1% tech skills.
Re: What every computer science major should know (2011)
#4> must practice persuasively and clearly communicating their ideas to non-programmers If you’re a CS major, panicking over this sort of “technical skills aren’t enough, you have to be a persuasive public speaker and effectively do management’s job for them”, people have been saying this since at least I started coding 30 years ago, and I don’t see any evidence that it’s actually true any more than it was back then -…
Powerpoint skills are where the money is, in large businesses that aren't FAANG. And probably even there, somewhat. I've come to this conclusion after seeing a lot of not-especially-smart-or-effective people-person folks with Powerpoint skills making serious money. [EDIT] it also seems to me that good presentation and communication skills are how you achieve "you don't apply for jobs, jobs apply for you" status witho…
The best advice I ever received re: PowerPoint was: "Don't present with PowerPoint. Use it to create a PDF from which to present."
Re: What every computer science major should know (2011)
#5Earlier quoted context omitted.
Powerpoint skills are where the money is, in large businesses that aren't FAANG. And probably even there, somewhat. I've come to this conclusion after seeing a lot of not-especially-smart-or-effective people-person folks with Powerpoint skills making serious money. [EDIT] it also seems to me that good presentation and communication skills are how you achieve "you don't apply for jobs, jobs apply for you" status witho…
The best advice I ever received re: PowerPoint was: "Don't present with PowerPoint. Use it to create a PDF from which to present."
I'm not sure I fully understand. Would you mind expanding on that?
Re: What every computer science major should know (2011)
#6Thread from 2015: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9490723
and originally: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2921440
Re: What every computer science major should know (2011)
#7> must practice persuasively and clearly communicating their ideas to non-programmers If you’re a CS major, panicking over this sort of “technical skills aren’t enough, you have to be a persuasive public speaker and effectively do management’s job for them”, people have been saying this since at least I started coding 30 years ago, and I don’t see any evidence that it’s actually true any more than it was back then -…
There's probably a few qualifiers:
1. What environment you work in: a large corporation vs small technical startup
2. What your ambitions are:
* Bluntly, if you want to be a very, very good coder who gets left alone and is largely handled/insulated by management, gets client requirements translated to and from them, that is certainly achievable by focusing on strictly technical skills. You can advance and be respected within that particular niche.
* If you want to be a solid team lead or manager who actually solves their team member's organizational problems / abstracts the organization challenges away from them; understand and trully aid your client; interact with various parts of your and client's organizations to make a larger change or lead a larger project; then a communication skillset is of course crucial.
It is almost tautological that to effectively communicate to various groups (programming peers, other technical personnel, management, business, clients, users) you have to be good at communicating to various groups :-/
--- As to what's difficult to acquire, again, it can be argued both ways. My wife is a tremendous communicator but technical abilities would be hard for her to acquire. At the same time, quite certainly a large amount of my technical colleagues and co-workers would and do clearly struggle to acquire communication skills. Or put another way, I'm personally in an environment with technical skillset out the wazoo (which is important and respected and appreciated), but communication skills are rare and prized.
Re: What every computer science major should know (2011)
#8> must practice persuasively and clearly communicating their ideas to non-programmers If you’re a CS major, panicking over this sort of “technical skills aren’t enough, you have to be a persuasive public speaker and effectively do management’s job for them”, people have been saying this since at least I started coding 30 years ago, and I don’t see any evidence that it’s actually true any more than it was back then -…
> focus on technical ability, that’s a hell of a lot harder to come by than “powerpoint skills”.
I don't know, actual presentation skills seem to be rather hard to come by. Just because someone can crank out presentations does not mean they actually have any skill in it.
Re: What every computer science major should know (2011)
#9> must practice persuasively and clearly communicating their ideas to non-programmers If you’re a CS major, panicking over this sort of “technical skills aren’t enough, you have to be a persuasive public speaker and effectively do management’s job for them”, people have been saying this since at least I started coding 30 years ago, and I don’t see any evidence that it’s actually true any more than it was back then -…
> focus on technical ability, that’s a hell of a lot harder to come by than “powerpoint skills”. I don't know, actual presentation skills seem to be rather hard to come by. Just because someone can crank out presentations does not mean they actually have any skill in it.
This.
Droning over PowerPoint != Communication Skills
(most people holding PowerPoint presentations are blissfully ignorant how bad they are at it)
Re: What every computer science major should know (2011)
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Powerpoint skills are where the money is, in large businesses that aren't FAANG. And probably even there, somewhat. I've come to this conclusion after seeing a lot of not-especially-smart-or-effective people-person folks with Powerpoint skills making serious money. [EDIT] it also seems to me that good presentation and communication skills are how you achieve "you don't apply for jobs, jobs apply for you" status witho…
The best advice I ever received re: PowerPoint was: "Don't present with PowerPoint. Use it to create a PDF from which to present."
I use PDF for high-level conversations. It appears more polished.
I use PPT for low-level conversations. You can double click on graphs to see the numbers.