Confessions of a (former?) Code Monkey Trainee
I've become dissatisfied with Computer Science lately. Studying the science of computing seems to be sucking the art and enjoyment out of it. A few month ago I would have told you that I felt called to be a computer scientist. Now I'm not so sure. Family and friends think that I have a gift with computers. I don't. I've just had far too much experience with them. Yes, I can make the “rocks that do logic” jump through hoops. That does not mean that I will make a good code monkey. Assuming I wanted to be a code monkey, which I don't.
I want to make computers do impossible things, better. Not spend my days writing transaction modules for a bank. Current “Computer Science” curricula often claims to have concepts as it's goals. In practice, it's all about fancier graphs for Uncle Bob's financial management program or better graphics for Cousin Anne's game. To be blunt, I resent going to class three times a week just to go over things I knew three years ago with people who, for the most part, couldn't care less. It's draining me. Never mind that being able to skip along on one class tricks my mind into skipping on classes where it can't.
You want me to be a better communicator? Fine, I'll take English courses above and beyond what is in the common core.
It's all about problem solving? Experience at work and home has taught me that problem solving is more art than science. The most successful way for me to solve problems is by looking closely at things that don't look or feel right. Programming is, for me, a series of intuative leaps strung together.
Perhaps I'm just fed up with the way computing is headed. I don't want a hand in creating interactive crack for a new generation. The future of computing is not about a better form of interactive television or universal access to the internet. We are all swimming in a polluted river of untreated data. The true usefulness of the internet will be revealed when anyone can have timly access to relevent and well formed intelligence about their life and the things that directly affect it.