Why do we create a gold rush mentality around popular fields?

[Anonymous]

Why do we create a gold rush mentality around popular fields? As soon as a field is popular colleges/technical schools with companies in the background rush to create degrees and certificates to meet the so call high demand.

To me it seems that the demand is artificial and often short lived. First it was data science. Universities slapped data science in almost every department. Every STEM major has some kind of data science specialization. Then we witnessed a rebirth of computer science. Universities started pumping CS graduates by the thousands. The media complicit in this write articles in awe about these young kids making 200k/300k. Parents see their very bright kids who initially wanted to be aerospace engineers, chemical engineers or mathematicians rush into CS/data science programs so they can hopefully have the $150k salary as fresh grad..

Or is his just capitalism in action? Flood the market to lower the wages. And the media doesn't miss a chance to interview these capital owners who keep reinforcing this artificial demand that does not exist.

[Anonymous]

It is a phenomenon of late-stage capitalism where it is not enough to make a solid wage doing something worthwhile and interesting. You have to be the best in a winner-takes-all workd or else you are a prole destined for a life of poverty.

[Anonymous]

"greed is good" said Michael Douglas. We are very greedy..That's just who we are...There is good return in those fields for investors. At some point to maximize profit you need to lower your labor cost. That's easier to do when you have thousands chasing 100s of posts.

Colleges are now closing biology/physics/math departments because those majors are less and less popular. It's a shame. A lot of those popular algorithms in machine learning have their roots in abstract algebra, real analysis and topology. But the next generation of young Americans is more interested in studying those high money fields. We are playing with fire because we will relinquish innovation to others this way.

We are

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is a phenomenon of late-stage capitalism where it is not enough to make a solid wage doing something worthwhile and interesting. You have to be the best in a winner-takes-all workd or else you are a prole destined for a life of poverty.

Lol this. Plus Americans like to buy lots of toys and dream of hitting it big.

A lot of us know people who have had this kind of luck.

I lived next door to an ordinary middle kid in a nice middle class neighborhood. Son of a F500 corporate engineer. Made it to HBS and an early start at Amazon and later made about $40M being a CEO somewhere. Was on the cover of Fast Company. If you know people who have made it, or are close enough, it's believable you could also get lucky.

[Anonymous]

Not sure. XH was a CS major and while he got paid a lot, it did not bring him much joy. Probably good that AI is taking a big part of the coding. Seeing these guys from the inside, it is a field full of genius yet aspie types and should not be revered for anything. XH was unfeeling and quite arrogant. My kids are not interested in CS at all.

It’s sad that some fields are held above others. My parents could never see my talents because they always expressed disappointment I was not a doctor or in business. I had what are considered “soft skills” but I believe I am quite successful considering I stayed home with the kids for awhile. Based on what I’ve seen in the larger world, these soft skills are huge.

[Anonymous]

People want to go where they can get the richest or guaranteed money rather than their interests or talents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is a phenomenon of late-stage capitalism where it is not enough to make a solid wage doing something worthwhile and interesting. You have to be the best in a winner-takes-all workd or else you are a prole destined for a life of poverty.

Yes it is disheartening. I told my kids liberal arts/arts and stay in the wheel not on the rim. Joseph Campbell..

[Anonymous]

Sadly this is a typical feature of the American capitalist. We do this better than anyone in the world. We move production where it's cheapest. We encourage legislation that maximize our investment returns. We endlessly complain that colleges are not teaching kids "useful" skills instead what we want are workers we can export quickly and dispose off. We make examples out of the 0.1% of extremely talented kids who made big studying one of those popular fields etc

[Anonymous]

We fail to tell kids that unless they went to MIT, Stanford, Cornell, CMU or the likes they will have a hard time landing one of those coveted jobs.

But again it's the same in other countries. In France we have a few universities like in the US that if you don't have an engineering degree from there best of luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not sure. XH was a CS major and while he got paid a lot, it did not bring him much joy. Probably good that AI is taking a big part of the coding. Seeing these guys from the inside, it is a field full of genius yet aspie types and should not be revered for anything. XH was unfeeling and quite arrogant. My kids are not interested in CS at all.

It’s sad that some fields are held above others. My parents could never see my talents because they always expressed disappointment I was not a doctor or in business. I had what are considered “soft skills” but I believe I am quite successful considering I stayed home with the kids for awhile. Based on what I’ve seen in the larger world, these soft skills are huge.

But considering people like Elon Musk, etc, people who lack soft skills do even better.

[Anonymous]

Why did people rush to get gold?

[Anonymous]

I’m so glad my kids didn’t major in CS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m so glad my kids didn’t major in CS.

My son graduated with a CS degree from UVA last summer. After a year searching for the high paying CS job without success, he is now looking for any job. Unfortunately he didn't have a minor or a double major. He is a pure CS major so his options are limited.

I think the CS market may be going through a transition I am not sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m so glad my kids didn’t major in CS.

My son graduated with a CS degree from UVA last summer. After a year searching for the high paying CS job without success, he is now looking for any job. Unfortunately he didn't have a minor or a double major. He is a pure CS major so his options are limited.

I think the CS market may be going through a transition I am not sure.

Tell him to go to law school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m so glad my kids didn’t major in CS.

My son graduated with a CS degree from UVA last summer. After a year searching for the high paying CS job without success, he is now looking for any job. Unfortunately he didn't have a minor or a double major. He is a pure CS major so his options are limited.

I think the CS market may be going through a transition I am not sure.

You think

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