Why do so few people major in computer science? (2017)
Can we talk about how much more CS people are expected to work than people in other fields ?<p>For most people here, CS is their hobby. So a lot of learning and knowledge acquisition happens during &#x27;leisure&#x27; time. This is rarely the case in other professions.<p>If we count all the time we spend resolving environments, getting setups right, learning new tools and reading papers as work (as we rightly should), then most people in tech would be working far more than 55 hours&#x2F;week.<p>This already ignores a lot of the quiet time people spend pondering over things and letting them stew semi-consciously. CS work is flexible, but is not easy or less-time consuming by any means.<p>If we try to force people into CS, then we will get what India has. A massive glut of incompetent tech &#x27;talent&#x27; with BS in CS, but need to be retrained all over-again to even do the most mundane sweat shop coding that companies like Infosys and TCS need their employees to do. (I say this as an Indian). Millions who hate their job, earn low pay and have a very small set of nontransferable skills, because what they actually know is &#x27;sweat shop tools&#x27; and not CS.                     
IMO, if there is any demographic that AI&#x2F;ML is most poised for eradicating, it is likely this one.<p>If CS in the US wants to increase participation without compromising on its present identity, then the only solution might be to foster interest and love for science&#x2F;math&#x2F;coding early in life and hope you can cast a wider net to capture everyone who would come to consider this profession a hobby.<p>Alternatively, it can go the way of every other mature profession and turn into a 9-5 boring thing you hate, but still continue doing because you need to put food on the table.