When you operate in uncharted waters, independent thinking makes for a good compass. As someone who studied comp sci in undergrad, I felt I didn't develop these skills as much as folks in the humanities.
I don't know if it's independent thinking so much as synthetic thinking. In comp sci, you get a lot of mileage out of analytic thinking. It maps nicely to linear processes in a computer, and to the rigor of programming languages.
So much mileage, in fact, that your non-analytic faculties atrophy from disuse.
So much mileage, in fact, that your non-analytic faculties atrophy from disuse.