"Engineer of Information", please ๐
this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2025
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looks weird without the clevage
If you want to know how computers work, do electrical engineering. If you want to know how electricity works, do physics. If you want to know how physics works, do mathematics. If you want to know how mathematics works, too bad, best you can do is think about the fact it works in philosophy.
If you want to know how philosophy works, do sociology...
It's kind of like a horseshoe with philosophy and math at the ends.
A horseshoe capped off by Computer Science ๐
If you want to no longer want to know how anything works, do biochemistry
Too real
Had a graduate Dev who did not have a fucking clue about anything computer related. How tf he passed his degree I have no idea.
Basic programming principles? No clue. Data structures? Nope.
We were once having a discussion about the limitations of transistors and dude's like "what's a transistor?" ~_~#
I've met people like that too.
It's called cheating, lots of people do it.
Most worthless dev I've met was a graduate of comp sci who couldn't hold a candle compared to a guy that did a dev boot camp.
The best dev I've met so far didn't even have any credentials whatsoever, second next best did 2yr associates.
Tie for 3rd best with associate's and 4yr degree.
I was partnered with that guy for one class in grad school. We were working on a master's degree in software engineering, and the assignment was analysis and changes to an actual code base, and this mofo was asking questions and/or blanking on things like what you mention. I can't remember the specifics but it was some basic building block kind of stuff. Like what's an array, or what's a function, or how do we send another number into this function. I think the neurons storing that info got pruned to save me the frustrating memories.
I just remember my internal emotional reaction. It was sort of "are you fucking kidding me" but not in the sense that somebody blew off the assignment, was rude, or was wrong about some basic fact. I have ADHD and years ago I went through some pretty bad periods with that and overall mental & physical health. I know the panic of being asked to turn in an assignment you never knew existed, or being asked about some project at work and just have no idea whatsoever how to respond.
This was none of those. This was "holy shit, this guy has never done anything, how did he even end up here?"
Tbh, as a dev knowledge of transistors is about as essential as knowledge about screws for a car driver.
It's common knowledge and in general maybe a little shameful to not know, but it's really not in any way relevant for the task at hand.
Maybe for dev knowledge, but computer science? The science of computers?
Is that not the difference between a computer science and a computer engineering degree?
What kind of cs degree did you get where you learned about electrical circuits. The closest to hardware I've learned is logic circuit diagrams and verilog.
I learned about transistors in Informatics class in highschool. Everything from the bottom up, from the material that makes a transistor possible to basic logic circuits sr flip flops, and, or, xor, addition, to the von-neumann-architecture, a basic microprocessor and machine code and assembly.
I mean, I graduated over 20 years ago now, but I had to take a number of EE courses for my CS major. Guess that isn't a thing now, or in a lot of places? Just assumed some level of EE knowledge was required for a CS degree this whole time.
In my uni they kinda just teach java. There is one mandatory class that's in C and one that's in mips assembly tho.
Everyone used AI when I took those classes. By the end of the year they were still having trouble on groupchat with syntax stuff.
I got my BS in CSci about 15 years ago and it was 100% about programming in java. We didn't learn a fucking thing about hardware and my roommate was an EE major and we had none of the same classes except for calculus.
By the time I graduated java was basically dead. Thanks state college.
Java isn't dead, though
In my own uni's coursework the closest we get are some labs where students breadboard some simple adder circuits, which we do just to save them from embarassing gaps in their knowledge (like happened in the inital comment). It doesn't add much beyond a slightly better understanding of how things can be implemented, if we're being honest.
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Well, computer science is not the science of computers, is it? It's about using computers (in the sense of programming them), not about making computers. Making computers is electrical engineering.
We all know how great we IT people are at naming things ;)
My BS in CS took its roots down to CMOS composition of logic gates and basic EE, on the hardware side, and down to deriving numbers and arithmetic from Boolean logic / predicate calculus, on the philosophy side. Then tied those up together through the theoretical underpinnings of computation and problem solving, like a trunk, and branched back out into the various mainstream technologies that derived from all that. It obviously all depends on the program at the school of choice, I suppose, and I'm sure it's evolved over the years, but it still seems important to have at least some courses that pull back the wizard's curtain to ensure their students really see how it's all just an increasingly elaborate, high-tech version of conceptually simple (in function) machinery carrying out fundamental building blocks of logic.
Anyway, I'm going to go sniff my own cinnamon roll scented farts while gazing in the mirror, now.
Informatics is a much better name imo
I see there's a fellow German speaker ;)
I do agree though!
If you want someone to know about the physical properties of transistors, find an electrical engineer.
Ok, but he didn't know what a transistor is. Like I get not knowing the mechanics or chemistry of it, but to literally not know it or how it applies to a computer boggles my mind.
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tbf all good programmers are good at math. Not classic arithmetic necessarily, but at the very least applied calculus. It's a crime how many people used a mathematical discipline every day, but don't think they're "good at math" because of how lazer focused the world is on algebra, geometry and trig as being all that "math" is.
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Depends on the context. When my company proposes me to a client for work I am, but oddly during my yearly performance review I am just some smuck who programs.
I literally have no idea what this picture means, and at this point I'm too afraid to ask.
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I mean, I am applying various kinds of science but I'm not actually doing any science so I'm not thinking about myself as a scientist. What I do is solving problems - I'm an engineer.
I have been coding since I was 10 years old. I have a CS degree and have been in professional IT for like 30 years. Started as a developer but Iโm primarily hardware and architecture now. I have never ever said I was a computer scientist. That just sounds weird.
Yeah youโd really only say it on the theoretical side of things, Iโve definitely heard it in research and academia but even then people usually point to the particulars of their work first
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