I’m taking a month off to celebrate the UW college graduation of my younger son, Peter. Peter was diagnosed with autism just before his second birthday. He’s always considered it an advantage, providing him strengths that set him apart. You can hear Peter talking about it at a charity event ten years ago. He’s now a meteorologist and off to get his Masters at the University of Oklahoma and the National Weather Center. Yeah, I’m a proud papa.
The graduate
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Congratulations! I’m somewhere on the spectrum myself, though when I was a child, doctors were still figuring out what autism was. My experience is that it’s given me a natural edge in doing the work of developing software.
I don’t understand you. Why do you subtly discourage people from getting a degree? But you yourself have a PhD and your son has a degree and you’re celebrating it!
I personally think degrees are worthwhile, for those who focus and properly learn the material! Don’t you notice that highly successful people such as yourself – as well as CEOs, CTOs, innovators, etc. – more often than not have a degree?
Why lower people’s aspirations by downplaying the benefit of study? Instead you should encourage people to take their education more seriously, with a long-term (20+ years) view, not just doing a bootcamp to get a job ASAP.
To clarify, when I write “subtly discourage people from getting a degree” I mean pieces like this: https://imwrightshardcode.com/2023/06/a-matter-of-degrees.
I feel like you’re missing perspective here. You’re a successful high-achiever with a lot of experience. The last time you actually sat down to… I dunno… solve an optimisation problem with calculus or write an essay… was probably a few decades ago.
The problem is that you’re thinking from the perspective of someone who already succeeded within a specific niche (the Microsoft ecosystem). But someone young who is only now wanting to enter the field might need to learn basic foundations like mathematics. They probably would benefit from a degree.
Sorry if this is coming off as rude or impertinent of me, but I’m just finding it so frustrating to see again and again mature people like yourself mildly/softly discouraging formal education when you yourself clearly benefitted from it!
Thanks for your thoughtful comments, Jay. Writing a column like “A matter of degrees” is tricky. You want to encourage a wide range of people to become software engineers, including those who can’t afford the time and money to attend college. You also want to encourage people to pursue their passions, including those that require degrees and/or certifications.
My son, Peter, wants to lead Meteorology research. For that, he needs a PhD. If he wanted to work in cybersecurity, he’d need a master’s degree. If he just wanted to be a software engineer, he wouldn’t need any degree, but as you say, college can be really helpful.