Email: Computer Science self-limits | Malstrom's Articles News

Sean,

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The thing about a CS degree (which is more and more getting replaced by Software Engineering) is that it?s like any other STEM degree?you have to be really smart and hard-working to get one. Unlike many other degrees, which are easily dumbed down with fuzzy standards so that students with lower cognitive ability can earn them, CS requires pretty deep analytical knowledge and lots of math. Yeah, the job market ebbs and flows, and the days when a CS degree was a fast track to a 6-figure income are well behind us, but much like with other engineering fields, the swings in the job market aren?t as wide because the math you need for the degree fundamentally limits the supply. So it kind of doesn?t matter if it gets a ?cool? perception and all of a sudden, tons of girls, hipsters, etc start showing up in the intro courses, because (speaking from experience) 50% will fail Calculus I and/or Physics I right away, and many more will drop out when they realize that math and algorithm design is actually really boring and hard compared to doing fun stuff like writing stories or psychoanalyzing people.

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The difference between a BS degree in Computer Science/Software Engineering and an associate?s in IT, Computer Technology, and pretty much all the rest of the computer-type degrees is like the difference between being a mechanical engineer and?being an auto mechanic. 2-year IT certs aren?t that valuable any more (though still far more valuable than many other 2-year certs).Things have changed very rapidly in the computer field over the past few decades. During the 80s and 90s especially, only the people inside the field really were aware of the changes. People on the outside didn?t know. All they knew was that computers were appearing everywhere.

Now it is the opposite. The rules of the 90s no longer apply today.

I suppose I?m tired of the CS person contrasting his field to? basketweaving? and talking about how ?hard? math is and how everyone else can?t do it. There is absolutely no mention from the CS person of other technology fields. What about manufacturing technology which is also very high tech? It?s not ?cool?. That is why there is no reason to focus on manufacturing in the US because no one is educated for it. Most people have no idea what a PLC is. What about fields in, say, chemistry? Another completed ignored field.

If the CS person was so confident in their field, why do they keep comparing it to basketweaving or to the art degree? Why not compare it to another technology degree?

Math is not hard. I don?t see it as a self-limiting factor because it is not a self-limiting factor in other fields (like accounting). People who go into CS tend to have spent too much of their free time on computers in their youth. With computers and the Internet going mainstream in the mid 90s, we?ll only be seeing more and more people who have grown up with them (including more women). Twenty years from that time, say the 2020s, I expect the CS person to be more generalized than what we saw before with the stereotypical Bill Gates geek.

The question isn?t what self-limits the CS agree but why would everyone want to go for it. The four big reasons are?

Money- It pays well. With the economic recession, people coming up will move towards it and away from other fields that once seemed to have paid well (such as law). People are attracted to money.

Status- Many people enjoy choosing jobs with status. While the CS person didn?t have status prior to the 90s, today the CS person is seen as ?intelligent, sophisticated, technologist,? etc. etc. Contrast that to say a manufacturing technology job that deals with technology in factories. Why does that have ?low status?, I don?t know. It does not share the same lack of status in other countries which is why they build up in manufacturing.

Liability- When software crashes, people don?t get killed. There is no comparison to say an engineer that builds structures. Lack of liability that the digital world presents is very attractive.

Office Job- IT jobs tend to be inside, out of the elements, where it is nice and comfortable. You?re not supposed to say this, but jobs that are outside, in the elements, where it is not comfortable such as working in mines or oil rigs are overwhelmingly dominated by men. Women tend to be interested in work in offices. Since women make up 50% of the potential workforce, that can be a huge amount of supply of workers to bring in. Does Andria Richards ring a bell? That is just the beginning.

Math might have been a self-limiting factor in the pre-recession days. Today, students and returning students aren?t scared of math. And Calculus, Physics, and Trigonometry are not that hard. Look at third world countries that spit out engineers. The reason why they produce so many engineers is because people are desperate to escape poverty. My own family of engineers had their preceding generation be a life of poverty.

Math is only scary if you don?t taste poverty. If you do taste it, math becomes LOL. Today, more and more people know the taste of poverty.

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Source: http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2013/03/28/email-computer-science-self-limits/

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