Ask HN: What non CompSci courses to take in college?
Courses in any of the other departments that would help in a programmer/entrepreneur career ?
(And if your school should happen to offer a rhetoric class, take it/them.)
What I got out of my courses depended in some very significant ways more upon how they were taught and by whom, than upon the ostensible topic at hand.
I have great respect for educators who have sincere interest and a passion to convey it.
These are also the people who tend, one finds, to have a better handle on the "mechanics" that are important to and education. Writing, presenting, engaging in dialog and debate, respecting one's conversational partner -- even while endeavoring to enlightened them as to their mistakes and assumptions.
Such people also engage you in the work, so that it's actually interesting and enjoyable to do. It's a lot easier to learn things, including those "mechanics", when that is the case.
That said, do try to get some -- but not solely or even primarily -- grounding in the "real", workaday world. Schools matriculate too many students who have no idea what they face once they walk out the door.
Also if you're interested in data science in general, some basic linguistics (syntax/semantics) would be useful. (Saying this as someone with a PhD in natural language processing, who had to self-learn all the linguistic background the hard way)
A course on art history will open your mind a little and get you thinking about design, aesthetics, and much more.
If you don't read classic literature, take a course on classic English or Russian lit. Most of these novels are timeless and could provide an important impression on you.
I would also suggest a course in either philosophy of science or philosophy of law. I found courses in other areas; aesthetics, epistomology, existentialism to be much navel gazing.
If you go this route, I also suggest you keep in mind the goal for these courses should be to hone your skills in analytical presentation. Philosophy generally require you produce many papers.
Technical Writing/Composition - People tie writing well up in their brain with literature. This is due to the American educational establishment thinking writing belongs to language arts teachers, who all have English degrees. There may be a "science writing" course offered at the grad level, see if you can audit it.
Accounting 101 - This class will teach you the fundamentals of all the things you will have to do with your bookkeeping. You're really not going to be able to afford to hire a bookkeeper at first most likely.
Publishing (aka, School Newspaper) - A semester of this will teach you how press works, allow you to see the revenue model of papers, and will allow you to see things first hand a newspaper is writing about before it comes out. This is very useful later in life for understanding how to properly help newspaper writers and editors not mis-spin your business
A course on pricing in the business school - They don't always have these, but the theoretical frameworks they talk about may be easier to digest in the classroom setting then picking it up on your own after you leave school.
One of the special things about that course was it was a special program at the school to introduce underclassmen to the best professors the school has to offer. (Often, you don't get to the most prized professors of a university until later.) So that's actually another way to select classes-- look for programs that are unusual in their approach but still give you credit.
You might also consider other things depending on where you want your career to go. If you're interested in web design, for example, you might want to consider photography so you can learn more about composition, color, light, and other aspects of art.
Two other extremely rewarding classes that might seem a little out of the ordinary to you:
1. Mechanical engineering drawing. You'll learn how to draw neatly and precisely, which is of tremendous value over your career. Turns out, this and other aspects of art are surprisingly mostly about craft, learned skills, discipline, and practice as they are about talent. Come to think of it, just learning that concept alone is worth the price of admission. ("If people only knew how hard I work to gain my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all."- Michaelangelo). You'll stand in front of a whiteboard or notebook tens of thousands of time in your life, and this single course will forever change and enhance the way you do anything on paper.
2. Digital electronics, (EE101 and the like) teaches you about digital logic, gates, flip flops, and so on. Even having already built all kinds of circuits, this was still very enriching because it shows formalized systems for how to optimize digital circuits down to the minimum number of components in ways that are kind of mind blowing (e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karnaugh_map).
Epistemology is just one example. Whatever tickles your brain in an introduction to philosophy--whether arousing your curiosity, 'clicking' with something long felt, or leading you almost to despair--you should treat as a diagnosis. Valuable information, no doubt, but almost worthless to you unless you go on to seek treatment, that is, to study it further.
He's (or was) very big on the history and the basis before interjecting yourself into the topic.
I've taken Psych. I've taken Sociology. I've taken Philosophy (both Logic and otherwise). I've taken technical writing courses.
Other than the logic courses, I hated them all. I hated them to the point where, though I passed, I did not take anything out from them at all. It just didn't interest me.
All I'm saying is that as you read these suggestions, try to make sure that you are taking into account that there's something you want to get out of the class so that if you end up not liking it you can focus and try to get something out of it. -- I didn't, even though I could have.
edit: Just noticed I'm echoing what many others have said. Interesting that we all had the same thought.
* A business course or two could be extremely useful depending on the course content -- you probably want to talk to a course counselor in the Business school about this.
* Take at least one art/design course. As a developer, I cannot tell you the number of times I've wished I understood design a little better. If nothing, understanding basic design principles will allow you to creatively contribute to a designer at some later date.
* Learn at least one new language. You haven't mentioned which country you're from (your profile doesn't say much), but Spanish is a good choice in the US. Personally, I wish I learnt German (I'm Indian and I find German a lot similar to Hindi and other Sanskrit-derived languages).
* Take a course that furthers your hobby: Photography, Art, Snowboarding, Archery and what have you.
* Take a course in the biology department. Preferably one that tells you more about the human body -- yourself. At the very least, you should be able to read your doctor's professional diagnoses or reports and understand what they mean. Know proximal vs distal, dorsal vs ventral and so on.
I'm sure there's more. I haven't had enough coffee to think right now though.
Ancient Greek/Roman, especially epistemology and stoics. Helps with accepting what comes and questioning how you know what you know.
Late 19th Century. Helps with questioning your real role in what you do, and why you should or should not.
Surveys of Eastern Philosophy. Adds a certain playfulness to life, also disabuses you of American perceptions of Asian traditions (such as Zen, widely mis-characterized in the west).
I took a Negotiations course my senior year of college and it was easily my favorite class of all time. There was a lot of roleplaying and class debate, but the teacher played Devil's Advocate and poked holes in everyone's arguments. He truly required us to think creatively and analyze a situation thoroughly before speaking/writing, or else he'd rip us apart. It was a breath of fresh air after many other classes were purely focused on learning concepts, rather than applying them creatively.
Specifically in this career, I'd like to say that CS courses alone is sufficient, certainly not optimal, but sufficient in making you a good programmer, though it's up to you what you make of your program.
For entrepreneur, in my experience, you have got to be a people person. And, you have got to understand the finances. For business/marketing and related classes I would say that generally different courses have different business logic which may or may not work depending on the situation. So, I would say prioritize on performance arts/public speaking if you're not already a people person. Else, go the finances route. It's amazing what basic knowledge of time value of money can teach you.
I talked my way into a 300 level (non-entry level) Buddhism class because I wanted to learn about it but didn't have the pre-reqs my senior year and loved every minute of it.
I learned about cultures I'll probably never see and ways of thinking that have only improved my ability to reason about complex problems. There's something to be said about learning for learnings sake!
TLDR; Take something you don't know much about, but want to learn about and it'll expand your mind.
If you get some business basics in, you lower your chances of getting screwed. Being able to protect your interests and work efforts could end up being your most valuable skill.
And not just in the baseline required rhetoric class that require little more than a pulse and a spellchecker - find a composition course that will actually demand something of you. Fiction writing, poetry, etc., something that makes you really learn how to communicate.
On that note, if you can find a presentation-heavy class, consider that. There's a lot of accessible comm classes that force you to get up in front of a crowd repeatedly - this could be invaluable in an entrepreneurial career.
If you are a well-spoken engineer among a pack of average engineers, you will stand out.
Technical writing courses, if available, are invaluable. Being able to write and explain things clearly is an amazingly helpful skillset to develop.
Linguistics classes can be useful for helping you think about both computer and human language construction and use.
Engineering courses can help develop problem solving skills.
On any classes you take, I'd try to dig up syllabi from previous semesters to see if they're worthwhile (try to find the same teacher/course combination).
Taking at least 1 course in Accounting probably wouldn't be a bad idea either.
You might also find some value in Statistics courses, and other Maths courses that aren't part of your CS degree.
Marketing - If people don't know that you're selling something, it won't get bought.
I agree with a lot of the Philosophy comments people are making, but in general you should try to avoid as many people as you can if they are not your customers.
Your direction usually dictates your education. Your ability to learn new shit is far more important than your inherent knowledge.
But this won't directly help you with programming as career, it's just one way to spend time. YMMV.
Accounting.
I'm not sure how much an economics course would help, seeing as the basics should be covered by the business course.
Maths, stats, electronics, physics could all be useful in an entirely computing-based career.
Biology or chemistry could open up a career in bioinformatics, molecular modelling or simulations. Likewise linguistics for text mining, information retrieval, speech/language processing.
Economics if you're interested in being an entrepreneur.
The crunchier end of philosophy, where it overlaps with maths and linguistics and cognitive science, will give you a much deeper frame of reference for understanding many hard problems.
Not all computing jobs involve twee social web startups or mundane CRUD.
Socialize, make connections, study art/literature/philosophy.