Domain Knowledge or a Lack Thereof
Ah yes, the tragedy of studying computing to the exclusion of everything else. Graduates with computer science degrees have an in-depth understanding of... text editors. And maybe compilers, databases, and operating systems — all items of zero value until they are applied to solving some real problems in some other field. Problems which the computer science graduate knows nothing about.<p>Then these graduates go into the working world, and they typically can't help solve problems in economics, physics, applied mathematics, or medicine except by coding up some system to someone else's specs. The more dedicated ones make an effort to understand what they're doing. They exceedingly rare, gifted, and motivated ones might learn enough about an industry to make real contributions.<p>I hope that our field eventually evolves to the point that programming skill becomes an accessory. People will then learn to program just like they learn to write, and use the craft to help them solve their actual problems. The profession of programmers who only know how to program should disappear like the profession of scribes who only know how to write.