4 ms·
Computer Science has become a "programming" farm degree rather than what it was originally back in my day (grumble, grumble). It used to be an off-shoot of math
by blue039 4y ago
Computer Science has become a "programming" farm degree rather than what it was originally back in my day (grumble, grumble). It used to be an off-shoot of mathematics and was so strongly tied at the hip many schools had CS and math in the same department.
Cynically programmers are paid better than any other so-called "knowledge worker" field. Naturally, schools paid by large organizations have a vested interest in finding interesting ways to drive down wages. One of the easiest ways is to just pollute the waters with sub-par talent. As much as this website, Google, and many other FAANGs would like you to believe, the average person lacking a formal education in CS or a related field (math, engineering, etc) tend to make for the programming equivalent of one trick ponies. The wages have stayed high as a result.
Personally, I am growing tired of seeing all of these "learn to program" focused CS degrees. Even the one you have linked lacks the rigor of an ABET accredited program. For the last several years now every time someone tells me they like computer science what they have meant is they like learning to code. There's nothing wrong with this, of course, but CS is quickly going the way of the kleenex. I am not gatekeeping to be an asshole. There is so much beauty and richness of the field. It's like the people who read one pop-sci physics book and then put "physicist" in their linkedin.
- hedora 4y agoI think the problem is that CS is too young to have sub-disciplines. If you want to lay a concrete slab foundation, then you get an architect, multiple engineers, the rebar guy, the cement mixing truck driver, the person that understands the chemistry of the cement, dyes, etc. Then, you get the guys with shovels to spread it around. Finally, there are some artisans that somehow make it perfectly level using nothing but plywood, trowels and brooms. None of those people can replace each other, and they all have different titles / work for different companies. Even the untrained people that spread the concrete around can't be replaced by the others; no one else has enough muscle tone / stamina to do that job! In CS we have many, many sub-specialties, but we don't have names for those specialties.
- fragmede 4y agoDon't we? Off the top of my head, there's front end, there's back end, there's DevOps, there's kernel devs, there's low-level embedded devs, there's database people, there's data scientists, there's ML people, scripting language people, video game engine programmers.
- Jensson 4y agoBut all of those got the same degree and usually the same job title, they specialized on the job and not in their education. That is very different from engineers.
- wheelinsupial 4y agoWhere I am, engineers have a discipline which is their undergrad major (e.g., mechanical, electrical, civil) and a practice area which is on the job specialization within the discipline (e.g., HVAC, pressure vessels, pipelines). Software engineering is a licensed branch of engineering in many places, so I don't think it's that different from other disciplines.
- AstixAndBelix 4y agoExactly, when I"m told to double up as a database engineer I always die inside a little bit. If this were any other profession there would be a specialized guy in every company doing that sort of thing.
- thaumasiotes 4y ago> but CS is quickly going the way of the kleenex Everyone knows what it is, everyone makes annual use of it? The name has expanded from "a product, sold by a particular company" to "exactly the same product, but sold by any company"? Help me out here.
- ggsp 4y agoMaybe they mean “programming” is becoming a metonym for “computer science”?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- 314 4y agoI'm finding it hard to parse your argument. Are you saying that large organizations would rather have cheap-but-mediocre programmers than good-but-expensive programmers? Why would this be a benefit to them, surely they want good programmers?