4 ms·

I have no reason to believe that you aren't motivated mostly by curiosity and interest, but the mass of CS undergrads are primarily driven by economic incentive

I have no reason to believe that you aren't motivated mostly by curiosity and interest, but the mass of CS undergrads are primarily driven by economic incentives.

jazz9k 7mo ago
The ones I knew that were only driven by money all dropped out or changed majors.
- titanomachy 7mo ago
  What did they change to? Pre-med?
  - Esophagus4 7mo ago
    VC after graduation…
  - roland35 7mo ago
    Business majors typically. I remember seeing a small graffiti in my engineering lecture hall that said something along the lines of "limit gpa -> 0: major= business administration"
    - jazz9k 7mo ago
      Exactly this. Business or Econ majors.
      - deleted 7mo ago
        [deleted]
  - giardini 7mo ago
    titanopathy asks"What did they change to? Pre-med?" Such innocents could never compete in premed, which is replete with sociopaths/psychopaths willing to sabotage each others for a seat in med school. [We should consider a secret government program to siphon off toxic pre-med students to business/military/intelligence programs for which they are much more suitable]. Our medical biosphere is much less than healthy today thanks to these demon seed "flowering" into practice. That, along with removing caps on medical school residencies: https://www.openhealthpolicy.com/p/medical-residency-slots-congress https://www.openhealthpolicy.com/p/medical-residency-slots-c...
    - titanomachy 7mo ago
      If you think that CS grads can't match pre-meds in sociopathic backstabbing, I'm guessing you've never worked at Meta or Amazon. But I do agree that CS students are quite cooperative compared to premeds.
- deleted 7mo ago
  [deleted]
palata 7mo ago
Feels like CS used to be for nerds who wanted to understand how computers work, and then it became much more popular because there were good career opportunities. Maybe with AI it will go back to "CS for nerds", and those nerds will be the ones landing the jobs that require actual understanding? Genuinely wondering.
- titanomachy 7mo ago
  Maybe, but it'll probably be a subtle shift rather than all-or-nothing. Like people will be 20% more nerdy on average or something. Note that the kids going into top CS schools were never exactly dumb jocks, they still have to be smart and good at math in addition to being (possibly) money-motivated. I think people with brains that can do CS well tend to also find it at least somewhat interesting.
- raw_anon_1111 7mo ago
  This is a false view. Most developers have always just been “dark matter developers” who only saw it as a way to put food on their tables. https://www.hanselman.com/blog/dark-matter-developers-the-unseen-99 https://www.hanselman.com/blog/dark-matter-developers-the-un... Almost every single developer I’ve met since 1996 talked about other hobbies they had outside of computers and didn’t think about coding outside if work.
  - palata 7mo ago
    > Most developers have always just been “dark matter developers” who only saw it as a way to put food on their tables. Is that what the article you share says? I read: "Where are the dark matter developers? Probably getting work done." It calls "dark matter developers" the ones that are not vocal on the internet. Doesn't say anything about how nerdy they are... > Almost every single developer I’ve met since 1996 talked about other hobbies Are you a developer yourself? And do you consider yourself a nerd? I am, and I do. And I actually have other hobbies. And I know a lot of developers who studied computer science because they were interested in computers (and not because they thought it would pay well).
c16 7mo ago
This is pretty easy to interview for, if that is something your company cares for during the hiring process.

I have no reason to believe that you aren't motivated mostly by curiosity and interest, but the mass of CS undergrads are primarily driven by economic incentives.

jazz9k 7mo ago

The ones I knew that were only driven by money all dropped out or changed majors.

titanomachy 7mo ago
What did they change to? Pre-med?
- Esophagus4 7mo ago
  VC after graduation…
- roland35 7mo ago
  Business majors typically. I remember seeing a small graffiti in my engineering lecture hall that said something along the lines of "limit gpa -> 0: major= business administration"
  - jazz9k 7mo ago
    Exactly this. Business or Econ majors.
    - deleted 7mo ago
      [deleted]
- giardini 7mo ago
  titanopathy asks"What did they change to? Pre-med?" Such innocents could never compete in premed, which is replete with sociopaths/psychopaths willing to sabotage each others for a seat in med school. [We should consider a secret government program to siphon off toxic pre-med students to business/military/intelligence programs for which they are much more suitable]. Our medical biosphere is much less than healthy today thanks to these demon seed "flowering" into practice. That, along with removing caps on medical school residencies: https://www.openhealthpolicy.com/p/medical-residency-slots-congress https://www.openhealthpolicy.com/p/medical-residency-slots-c...
  - titanomachy 7mo ago
    If you think that CS grads can't match pre-meds in sociopathic backstabbing, I'm guessing you've never worked at Meta or Amazon. But I do agree that CS students are quite cooperative compared to premeds.
deleted 7mo ago
[deleted]

palata 7mo ago

Feels like CS used to be for nerds who wanted to understand how computers work, and then it became much more popular because there were good career opportunities. Maybe with AI it will go back to "CS for nerds", and those nerds will be the ones landing the jobs that require actual understanding? Genuinely wondering.

titanomachy 7mo ago
Maybe, but it'll probably be a subtle shift rather than all-or-nothing. Like people will be 20% more nerdy on average or something. Note that the kids going into top CS schools were never exactly dumb jocks, they still have to be smart and good at math in addition to being (possibly) money-motivated. I think people with brains that can do CS well tend to also find it at least somewhat interesting.
raw_anon_1111 7mo ago
This is a false view. Most developers have always just been “dark matter developers” who only saw it as a way to put food on their tables. https://www.hanselman.com/blog/dark-matter-developers-the-unseen-99 https://www.hanselman.com/blog/dark-matter-developers-the-un... Almost every single developer I’ve met since 1996 talked about other hobbies they had outside of computers and didn’t think about coding outside if work.
- palata 7mo ago
  > Most developers have always just been “dark matter developers” who only saw it as a way to put food on their tables. Is that what the article you share says? I read: "Where are the dark matter developers? Probably getting work done." It calls "dark matter developers" the ones that are not vocal on the internet. Doesn't say anything about how nerdy they are... > Almost every single developer I’ve met since 1996 talked about other hobbies Are you a developer yourself? And do you consider yourself a nerd? I am, and I do. And I actually have other hobbies. And I know a lot of developers who studied computer science because they were interested in computers (and not because they thought it would pay well).

c16 7mo ago

This is pretty easy to interview for, if that is something your company cares for during the hiring process.