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Stabilizer comments on Group Rationality Diary, January 16-31 - Less Wrong Discussion

2 Post author: therufs 16 January 2014 01:56PM

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Comment author: Stabilizer 29 January 2014 10:02:53AM *  3 points [-]

This website seems to suggest that the average CS major makes about $58k for a starting salary. So, if you do reasonably well in school, then getting a $60k starting salary doesn't seem unlikely.

Why do you think getting a job right after graduation is unlikely? Can you find out from the school how likely it is for a CS major to get a job right after graduation? If the probability of getting a job right after school is low, then can you consider attending a different school?

Also, programming competency can be signaled without a degree: contribute to open source code, build something, participate in programming contests. But the degree would definitely help.

Also, I think you overestimate how easily your current job will be automated away. Support---for humans by humans---seems to me to be one of the hardest problems to automate away. Consider how many different skills you need: natural language processing; understanding emotional, cultural, person-specific and historical contexts; empathy; specific technical knowledge; the ability to communicate that knowledge effectively and so on. I don't think the AI community is even remotely close to nailing this (Am I wrong here? Someone care to correct me?). Which is why we positively hate voice-prompt hell.