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Computer science is overrated.

Computer engineering on the other hand... much more practical ;)

I'm seeing this belief more and more among engineers these days. It's not even an admission of ignorance, but an explicit position they hold. "You don't need to know the chemical composition of the patty to flip burgers," one told me. All I was doing was trying to explain that he could be way more than a burger flipper if he learned more deeply.

If you ask me, the word computer scientist mostly applies to people in academia, and those spend most of their time teaching the same thing every year, or trying to get their papers accepted, and fighting workplace politics instead of doing something practical.

Knowing what something is isn't science, it's just being educated. Figuring out a new type of semiconductor or new sorting algorithm is science, and even that sometimes isn't. Something that I threw together one night that hasn't been peer reviewed isn't science, it's just engineering.

Obligatory SMBC: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2011-02-17

> trying to get their papers accepted

I think that to do that one has to spend (most of their) time writing those papers, and doing the research contained in them.

good luck w/ that =)

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