Regrets: Not Getting a CS Degree

“My advice to young people is to get a computer science degree, if for no other reason than you can avoid those odd jobs and get right to the programming.” – Brent Simmons

I’m continually bumping up against my ignorace of good programming practices that one would get in Comp. Sci. 101. Not that it stops me, just makes the time from idea to reality much longer than I’d prefer – especially for tiny things.

On the flip side, I’m suspect if I got a CS degree instead of a Graphic Design degree, I’d probably be fighting with my ignorance of visual composition, color theory, typography, and interface design.

Seem to me, taking a couple Comp Sci classes in college not only helps you “find out if you were, in fact, born a programmer”, it makes you less of a user.

More of a doer.

Elsewhere:
Phil Crissman talks about the differences between software development and Computer Science degrees

3 thoughts on “Regrets: Not Getting a CS Degree

  1. Scott McGerik

    “good programming practices that one would get in Comp. Sci. 101.”

    Heh! It takes more than CS 101 to learn good programming practices.

    Much of the practices I learned from CS did not scale well. Much of what I work on professionally has need to be maintained and modified. Which was not the case for many of the CS assignments I had.

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