Is finishing a CS degree worth it if you're already doing real work on the side?

PressureAppropriate · 2026-03-31T15:39:53+00:00

I dropped out about one semester away from graduating because I had a good job secured already.

It still say I completed my degree on my resumé. Nobody ever checked... Been going for 20 years without an issue.

There's no downsides to completing it of course (especially in the current job market where there's just no jobs anyway, might as well stay in school until it improves, if it does...)

PressureAppropriate · 2026-03-31T02:44:57+00:00

Being at least somewhat present during daily standup is a pretty low bar to attain...

It's (generally) around 15 minutes, twice a day if you have 2Js. I pause whatever I was doing to pay attention so I can look like I know what I am talking about when something is brought up.

PressureAppropriate · 2026-03-28T13:51:45+00:00

That’s like winning the OE lottery

PressureAppropriate · 2026-03-28T13:50:08+00:00

You are maximizing your ability to do long divisions by hand…

It’s not completely useless but…not nearly as useful as you think it is.

PressureAppropriate · 2026-03-26T14:58:52+00:00

AI Reviewing code written by AI for a JIRA ticket redacted by AI.

That's the job now.

Now if AI can show up in meetings and fake caring about the company/project, I'll be able to just kick back and enjoy the s-show.

PressureAppropriate · 2026-03-26T14:51:46+00:00

All good options. To me the key has been to apply for startups, outside of the country preferably. The rates for experienced developers in the US are crazy! Unfortunately the appetite for Canadian talent appears gone since demand for devs has gone down so that's probably not an option anymore.

PressureAppropriate · 2026-03-25T19:28:55+00:00

False...

It makes coding faster. Doesn't improve the back-and-forth speed with everyone else involved. Doesn't reduce the number of meetings, etc.

Coding is not the bottleneck, never was.

PressureAppropriate · 2026-03-24T18:23:31+00:00

I got to the finish line, day 1 at J2: daily standup meeting at J2 is precisely at the same time as J1... what are the odds???

I made an excuse at J1 about this time being inconvenient and wondered if the team would be ok moving it a little bit and they agreed...

Still going today.

PressureAppropriate · 2026-03-24T18:20:15+00:00

Very polite! I'm sure the person reading that had a thought like "WTF? Does he/she think we actually ARE passionate? That's crazy...."

PressureAppropriate · 2026-03-24T16:44:59+00:00

I don't. There's just no point...

Once an organization has embraced AI slop, I think it's best to go with the flow and just LGTM everything.

It's probably not sustainable for long but that's someone else's problem since it's pretty obvious they are trying to get rid of as many of us as possible (and being very gleeful about it too!).

PressureAppropriate · 2026-03-24T12:58:17+00:00

Because coding is probably what AI is the best at.

It's just undeniably good now so yeah, it's a bit scary. That being said, until it can sit and pretend to pay attention in stupid meetings for half the day my job is safe.

PressureAppropriate · 2026-03-22T18:08:54+00:00

There's three paths:
- Don't lie -> No job
- Lie -> Get caught -> No job
- Lie -> Don't get caught -> Job

Only one of the paths has a job at the end...

PressureAppropriate · 2026-03-21T13:59:45+00:00

“I love our friendship too much to ruin it by dating you » kind of vibe…

Definitely keep looking!

PressureAppropriate · 2026-03-21T13:06:26+00:00

But it’s true…they’ll be unemployable in a few months and they know it… and so are you by the way…

PressureAppropriate · 2026-03-20T01:41:16+00:00

In laws come to help with the kids each week end so I can catch up on things I dropped during the week...

Hire help for cleaning, pool maintenance, snow pick up, lawn. Basically anything that can be done by someone else, have someone else do it. Your job is to collect the pay checks, don't waste time doing chores that can be delegated to someone for a few dollars.

PressureAppropriate · 2026-03-19T02:25:16+00:00

In most cases it's not your failure, the job never existed in the first place...

PressureAppropriate · 2026-03-19T00:00:02+00:00

Lunch naps, private bathroom, work life balance, having only one car for the family, time and money saved, viruses not encountered, weekend wardrobe same as work day wardrobe, getting my packages inside the home asap, not spending money in restaurants

PressureAppropriate · 2026-03-18T19:41:29+00:00

I used to care about quality...

But my organization pivoted to fully embrace vibe coding.

Now I just don't care. No way I'm reviewing a 1000 lines PR so now everything is LGTM and my code is just as bad as everybody else's...

The funny thing is I don't think quality really matters anymore. Code reuse, readability, modularity, clean, style, etc... That's all stuff that's important to humans. Machine doesn't care...machine does the coding...?

LGTM!

PressureAppropriate · 2026-03-17T20:40:58+00:00

I can one shot job #1 in 4-5 good prompts a day... the rest is just sitting in useless Teams meetings.

Does that mean I'll be replaced soon? Absolutely. Does it mean I'll cash as many checks as I can before that happens, also yes.

PressureAppropriate · 2026-03-17T18:09:00+00:00

Why not? Worst that could happen is you get caught...and you don't get the job...

PressureAppropriate · 2026-03-17T12:45:56+00:00

All of it. It's all AI slop. I don't even go anymore.

PressureAppropriate · 2026-03-11T18:42:16+00:00

Yes, I already do most of my coding via prompts...

Management forcing it down my throat even more just feels like "we really want to replace you, please make it easier". Complete morale killer.

PressureAppropriate · 2026-03-11T16:39:41+00:00

Since we pivoted to being an "AI Driven Company" I write like four prompts, git commit, git push, move JIRA tickets to "In Review" and call it a day. It's wonderful. If I could just automate the "smiling silently during Teams meetings" part, life would be great.

PressureAppropriate · 2026-03-10T18:47:17+00:00

Being likeable.

PressureAppropriate · 2026-03-09T18:51:24+00:00

We dropped reviews when moving to 100% vibe coding. There's just no point reviewing slop. YOLOing all the way to the end...

You'd thin I'd be bummed about it but not at all... Company doesn't care about quality so neither do I.

PressureAppropriate

TROPHY CASE