Developer Culture Check

Right now the face of learning to become a developer is a cheap cardboard cutout of Computer Science.

“This $5000 programming class is on sale for $17!”

I only had to scroll Facebook for 30 seconds to find this. That should tell you something.

Oh boy!

I can’t tell you how many half-baked ads like this I’ve seen claiming that learning {x, y, z} technology is going to {build a path to a better future, double your income, land the tech job of your dreams}. How many YouTube thumbnails claim “THIS ONE TRICK CHANGED MY CAREER”.

Already, you may be thinking “They’re obviously exaggerating. It’s an ad. That’s what they do.” If it were just the ads, that’d be one thing.

But it’s not about the ads. It’s about the culture.

Let me back up.

Over the past couple of decades, Computer Science exploded around the world. Tech giants laid a foundation on silicon and ambition. At first, it was a computer in every home, then every pocket, and finally every device that could be improved by one. Today, almost any app you could ask for is at your fingertips, any story you could imagine tucked in a video game. Research, medicine, finance, and virtually every modern field benefited from the digital age.