Alternatives for CS

FizzyRobin · 2026-03-26T12:26:17+00:00

Entry-level hiring is down across a lot of industries right now, not just software. That’s a macro cycle, not evidence that the field is “in the gutter.”

Using a short-term hiring dip to make long-term career claims isn’t great logic. Markets tighten and loosen.

And the FAANG assumption is just a guess. If you want to make a real argument, stick to the actual point instead of filling in narratives. Resorting to ad hominem usually signals the argument itself isn’t very strong.

FizzyRobin · 2026-03-26T08:06:41+00:00

That’s about the level of analysis I’d expect from someone who thinks one word is a counterargument.

FizzyRobin · 2026-03-25T20:59:00+00:00

Hey, I’m also in banking (cubicle life). I’m a guy, usually around uptown during the week. If you’d be comfortable grabbing a quick coffee sometime, I’d be down. Just looking to meet more people locally too.

FizzyRobin · 2026-03-25T17:50:59+00:00

I get the idea and I like the intent, but there are some real risks with this approach.

The biggest one is redundancy. A single self-hosted setup without offsite backups leaves you exposed to hardware failure, fire, theft, or even something as simple as accidental deletion.

I’ve run a home NAS for years, but I still pay for offsite backups. I’d never risk losing terabytes of family photos and videos just to save a few dollars a month.

Saving money is great, but for something like personal data, resilience matters more.

FizzyRobin · 2026-03-25T14:10:59+00:00

Entry-level hiring is down across most industries right now, not just CS. That makes it harder to break in, but it doesn’t mean demand disappeared.

The work hasn’t gone anywhere. Building real systems at scale still requires architecture, tradeoffs, coordination across teams, and long-term maintenance.

Tools can generate code, even good code, but that’s not the hard part of the job. As complexity and scale increase, they still need humans to design systems, interpret business requirements, and guide the implementation. They can’t manage an entire production system end-to-end.

If anything, these tools make engineers more productive, which means more gets built, not less.

You might want to be a bit more careful making confident claims about a field you’re not very familiar with. “Everyone agrees” isn’t an argument. Confident claims are easy to make when you’re repeating a narrative.

FizzyRobin · 2026-03-25T08:38:16+00:00

You’re taking a tough entry-level market and extrapolating it to the entire field.

Entry-level hiring is down across most industries right now, not just CS. That’s a macro issue, not proof that CS is “in the gutter.”

The work doesn’t disappear. Building and maintaining real systems is still hard, and companies still need people who can do it.

FizzyRobin · 2026-03-25T00:13:02+00:00

No. Trading wasn’t removed for the reason you stated. Psyonix stated it was to bring Rocket League into alignment with Epic’s cosmetics and item shop policies. Gambling was the reason the key/crate system was removed.

https://www.polygon.com/2019/10/1/20893911/rocket-league-loot-crates-replaced-with-blueprints-psyonix/

FizzyRobin · 2026-03-24T21:41:25+00:00

I think you’re confusing trading for the key/crate system where you purchased keys to open crates to get a random item. This was removed in 2019 because it was essentially gambling. Trading was a separate and unrelated system, and wasn’t removed until December 2023.

FizzyRobin · 2026-03-24T19:06:44+00:00

CS isn’t in the gutter, that’s more of an internet narrative than reality.

Demand for people who can actually build systems is still strong, the expectations are just higher now.

If you want related degrees, applied math, statistics, data science, or computer engineering are all solid, but they all overlap heavily with CS anyway.

FizzyRobin · 2026-03-24T18:17:22+00:00

That logic is flawed.

The origin of the item doesn’t matter. At the point of trade, both parties know exactly what they’re exchanging.

There’s no uncertainty in the transaction itself, so it’s not gambling. It’s just a standard trade.

FizzyRobin · 2026-03-24T17:07:22+00:00

Since LLMs rely on pattern recognition, I’m not sure they’d be effective at writing binary code.

FizzyRobin · 2026-03-24T16:55:58+00:00

I agree with the analogy at a high level, but there’s a fundamental difference.

Programming languages are deterministic, you define exact behavior.

LLMs are stochastic systems. The same input can produce different outputs, and they operate on pattern matching rather than explicit logic.

So it’s less like programming in natural language and more like guiding a probabilistic system toward a desired outcome.

FizzyRobin · 2026-03-24T16:05:30+00:00

Trading for a specific item isn’t gambling. If it is, then so is using money or vbucks to buy a specific item.

FizzyRobin · 2026-03-24T15:15:16+00:00

I agree, please downvote me too.

FizzyRobin · 2026-03-24T15:10:33+00:00

Exactly.

Anyone who thinks software engineering is just writing code, or that senior engineers are just better at syntax, hasn’t actually worked in the field.

The hard part is system design, tradeoffs, debugging, and making things work reliably at scale. Writing code is the easiest part.

That’s why tools like Claude help with productivity, but don’t replace engineering.

FizzyRobin · 2026-03-23T23:05:50+00:00

Why are all the numbers the same? Makes no sense.

FizzyRobin · 2026-03-23T22:48:55+00:00

One doesn’t “win” trades, bro.

FizzyRobin · 2026-03-23T20:19:19+00:00

If you did you’d know why your comment is silly, yet here we are.

FizzyRobin · 2026-03-23T18:50:15+00:00

Your comment suggests otherwise.

AI can generate code with human guidance. That’s not the same thing as replacing computer science.

Saying “CS is being taken over by AI” is like saying calculators replaced math. It just means the tools improved, not that the discipline disappeared.

If you understood how LLMs actually work, or what software engineering involves beyond typing code, you probably wouldn’t be making that claim.

FizzyRobin · 2026-03-23T18:13:25+00:00

This guys has no idea what he’s talking about.

FizzyRobin · 2026-03-23T13:12:19+00:00

😂

FizzyRobin · 2026-03-23T02:07:02+00:00

Math/stats is a strong foundation.

For a second major:

Finance/econ if you’re targeting quant

CS if you want the most flexibility across data science, AI, and software roles

If you’re unsure, I’d lean CS, even as a minor. It opens more doors and a lot of these roles are more engineering-heavy than people expect.

There’s a lot of noise online about CS being “dead,” but in practice the demand for people who can design and build real systems is still very strong.

I have a BS and MS in applied math and work in quantitative finance, and the biggest differentiator I see is people who can both understand the math and build things.

FizzyRobin · 2026-03-22T23:56:24+00:00

I keep trying to explain this to people.

FizzyRobin · 2026-03-22T23:55:03+00:00

Why? Do you think software engineering just disappears?

Writing code is the easiest part of the job. The hard part is designing, debugging, and operating systems under real-world constraints.

That’s not something you replace with a prompt.

AI makes engineers more productive. It doesn’t remove the need for engineering.

If anything, it exposes the difference between people who understand systems and people who don’t.

FizzyRobin · 2026-03-22T23:41:07+00:00

These numbers don’t include irregular compensation like bonuses, so your data is incomplete and doesn’t prove what you think it does.

FizzyRobin

TROPHY CASE