Comment by titanomachy
7 days ago
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.
7 days ago
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.
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-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.
> 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).
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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.
The ones I knew that were only driven by money all dropped out or changed majors.
What did they change to? Pre-med?
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"
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VC after graduation…
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-c...
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This is pretty easy to interview for, if that is something your company cares for during the hiring process.