Universities Have a Computer-Science Problem

> Instead of “random humanities” requirements, maybe actually prepare me for a job

I can’t access the article, so I don’t know what the author is advocating. But there’s a strong case to be made that a well rounded education is the best job preparation you can get. Particularly so when you consider that skills age quickly and you’ll need to adapt and retool many times over the course of a career.

Of course, you need to master the fundamentals of whatever field you’re going into, but it’s very useful - economically - to have some fluency in other areas.

Well, according to German CS profs, actually writing software is beneath computer scientists. They seem to have so little experience with actually writing software that they completely miss how much practice inspires and validates (or invalidates - at least regarding usefulness) theory. It boggles the mind how much potential was squandered by these fools.

This was addressed in the article:

The relationship between the theoretical computer scientists in mathematics and the applied ones in engineers is a little like the relationship between biologists and doctors, or physicists and bridge builders. Keeping applied and pure versions of a discipline separate allows each to focus on its expertise, but limits the degree to which one can learn from the other.

It's a bit like the difference between writing about film and making a film. Unless noted otherwise, a person writing about film has little to no filmmaking experience... Hence, I am always surprised when people are surprised that someone who majored in computer science can't program.

The upshot is that the writer agrees with you (and expands that agreement into a larger theory about what college education should be for).

I would bet they had no problem passing the Cracking the Coding Interview type algos coding that so many places use as a proxy for intelligence and competence.

depends on the university