4 ms·

CS is more of a precursor to people getting MS or PhD in it but the tech industry uses it as a barometer to assess candidates. I actually like solving business

CS is more of a precursor to people getting MS or PhD in it but the tech industry uses it as a barometer to assess candidates. I actually like solving business problems with software so advanced topics where core CS is crucial (writing RDBMS software or OSes) aren’t of interest to me other than foundational knowledge. CS is sorta useful in writing business systems but really for CS level problems, you’re mostly using installed software, not writing your own RDBMS, or your own sorting algorithm. The foundational knowledge is helpful, makes picking up new tech somewhat easier but I’m using libraries and installed software that provides proven solutions. There is still complex software involved but it’s complexity is business complexity. If your path is to write business software, a CS degree can be a good entry point but day to day work isn’t typically writing advanced CS stuff. All analogies are bad, so here’s one comparing software to healthcare: a software engineer is more like your primary care doc (there are lots and they use proven solutions) and a CS PhD writing code for an OS on how to use CPU cores is more like a brain surgeon (there are few and they may have to find/create solutions).

RetroTechie 3y ago
> CS is sorta useful in writing business systems but really for CS level problems, you’re mostly using installed software, not writing your own RDBMS, or your own sorting algorithm. There are many jobs for which CS is absolutely useless. Or mostly useless. But I'm sure there are also many jobs, where having a foundation in CS could be very helpful in weighing the merits of different solutions to a problem. Big O (scaling), understanding existing implementations, their performance on particular hardware, the difficulty (or non-) of implementing a new technique that doesn't exist as ready-to-use library, language issues, etc, etc. Sure maybe one can do well without diving into CS. But that doesn't take away its value.

RetroTechie 3y ago

> CS is sorta useful in writing business systems but really for CS level problems, you’re mostly using installed software, not writing your own RDBMS, or your own sorting algorithm. There are many jobs for which CS is absolutely useless. Or mostly useless. But I'm sure there are also many jobs, where having a foundation in CS could be very helpful in weighing the merits of different solutions to a problem. Big O (scaling), understanding existing implementations, their performance on particular hardware, the difficulty (or non-) of implementing a new technique that doesn't exist as ready-to-use library, language issues, etc, etc. Sure maybe one can do well without diving into CS. But that doesn't take away its value.