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by InefficientRed 1416 days ago
> I was concerned about rampant outsourcing for some reason.

Because this concern was pervasive in pop culture / career advice columns during post dot-com. Fear-mongering about outsourcing is probably one of the primary causes for the huge run-up in software development salaries in the 2010s.
1 comments
wollsmoth 1416 days ago
Yeah, looking back it's kinda funny. As if it's not possible to outsource ACCOUNTING. I really dodged a bullet there.
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InefficientRed 1416 days ago
Hah! An Accounting prof told me that I should double in Accounting because CS would be outsourced. I said something like "well, maybe, but CS is going to automate a ton of Accounting jobs either way, and the accessible Accounting jobs that continue to exist will require some programming. So I will choose my job maybe being outsourced over my job definitely being automated."

I'm now on a few committees at the college and mentioned this conversation to him. He remembered it, even though it was may years ago. He laughed and told me that's basically what happened -- for a few years they had very low in-field placement rates because there are not enough personal tax prep jobs to go around and the larger accounting firms demanded programming skills for entry positions. The Accounting major now requires multiple CS courses and he encourages his students to double-major in CS.

On that note, I'm bearish on SWE compensation and bullish on CS research compensation over the next 10 years. For basically the same reason. We've been massively under-producing (good) CS PhDs because industry pays so well and the standard advice is "only idiots get PhDs when industry starting pay for folks who can get into good phd programs is 150K+".

Basically, "zig when everyone else is zagging" is pretty good early career advice.

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wollsmoth 1416 days ago
Yeah. Academia feels like such a minefield though. I don't know if going for a doctorate is something I'd enjoy. Interesting idea though.
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InefficientRed 1416 days ago
> Academia feels like such a minefield though.

Yes. Get a PhD then leave for industry. The university system will be permanent decline for the rest of our lives.

Another instance of "zig when the crowd zags".

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wollsmoth 1416 days ago
well, how many years does that take though? That's a lot of time to not be earning. Then there's kind of a question of making sure the focus is something people are going to really need in the future. Feels risky.
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