[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Year old CS student. Should I continue?
___________________________________________________________________
Ask HN: Year old CS student. Should I continue?
Hello. I'm 17, I've loved computers since I was 5. I'm a pretty
decent programmer, I've done some big projects, worked with teams
on extended projects, and have a pretty decent understanding of
programming/linux/networking/security/etc. I generally write C,
Rust, Python, and TS. I attend a STEM school that specialises in CS
and engineering, and I'm in my first year of A Levels (UK) studying
Maths, Further Maths, Physics, and Computer Science. I'm on track
to get As and A*s. The plan 6 months ago was - get good grades, go
to a good uni, get a CS degree while doing programming to pay for
uni/do a degree apprenticeship, and go into a CS career. Without
LLMs messing the world up, I think it's a pretty good plan. I'm a
good programmer for my age and I'm academic. However, with recent
developments, that seems borderline foolish. I'm interested in
physics and engineering, I think I could enjoy a career in either,
and I've still got time to pivot to either. I might be able to
write better code than GPT-10 - might - but there would surely be
increased competition. I also just don't find asking a LLM in the
"correct" way and having it spit out code trained on millions of
other programmers interesting in the slightest. I worry that
actually knowing how to write code without a LLM will go the way of
knowing assembly and having intimate knowledge of a computers
internals. I'm frankly tired of hearing about LLMs, but I know
that I can't just pretend they don't exist. I have less than a year
to make a decision on which uni courses I apply to and I don't know
whether I should abandon a sinking ship or hope it's alright and it
stops here, as an aid but not something which ruins programming.
I've seen people saying "But we'll still need to translate client
requirements to prompts" - 1. I doubt that'll pay well, and while
that's not my primary motivation it is something to consider before
committing myself, 2. I'm not interested in being a human-bullshit
to AI-bullshit translator. And yes, there's more to CS than
programming, but not in a way that pays the bills. If I pivoted I'd
still write code "The old fashioned way" for fun. So: What do I
do? I'd appreciate some advice. Thanks :)
Author : ShouldIPivot
Score : 10 points
Date : 2023-03-21 22:46 UTC (14 minutes ago)
| karaokeyoga wrote:
| My advice as an older programmer who has a son in engineering
| school (who is asking similar questions) ... stay in CS. The
| world will change as a result of LLMs, of course, but new
| opportunities emerging will be one of those changes, and a CS
| background will help you prepare for such opportunities. My
| $0.02.
| rgrieselhuber wrote:
| Agreed. There will be even more need for humans who understand
| CS to direct the LLM-based systems.
| adastra22 wrote:
| Ignore all the hype about LLMs. They will automate a lot of jobs,
| and become critical to others, but it will be a very long time
| until there is no need, or even declining need for computer
| science majors.
| woooooo wrote:
| Most of what we do in business is figuring out requirements and
| breaking down a big project into manageable tasks. The code winds
| up feeling like an easy afterthought once that's done.
| joewrong wrote:
| do what sounds the most fun to you. there's no clear pre-planned
| path with all of the answers, so enjoy what you can
| zamfi wrote:
| > I also just don't find asking a LLM in the "correct" way and
| having it spit out code trained on millions of other programmers
| interesting in the slightest.
|
| Think broader.
|
| Right now our only interface to these powerful models is prompts,
| but this is an artifact of how we discovered them.
|
| Future you will not be (paraphrasing) "finding the right prompt
| to have an LLM spit out the right code" nor "translating client
| requirements to prompts".
|
| Instead you'll be letting an LLM fill in the basic details of
| code, syntax, systems, and propose algorithmic approaches that
| you pick and choose from, while you think bigger and write
| programs with with substantially more complexity and capability.
|
| How this could become a _less-_ remunerative activity I have no
| idea!
| slibhb wrote:
| If you're good at math and know how to program, your major
| doesn't matter. You'll be fine. And if you're not, it won't be
| due to your major.
|
| Decide based on what interests you most.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2023-03-21 23:01 UTC)