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Comment by jkbwdr

7 days ago

currently in cs masters program at ivy: i think it's like thinking that pure math study evaporated when we made the calculator, or that we suddenly shouldn't have bothered with Riemann sums because of the FTC. ai to coding is much the same in the sense of moving to a layer of higher abstraction. i don't think cs curriculums have to change drastically to accommodate this; however, the onus on not getting it wrong increases since ai produces probabilistic output. finally, you can have a chat bot do all the work for you to your own detriment i suppose...

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.

  • 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.

    • 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.

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