lamenting nerds

posted on 2021-10-25

when i was growing up, it was clear that computers and the internet were increasingly the new thing that was going to change the world. this eventually became the case. but one thing i was wrong about, and no doubt many others, was in expecting that this would result in young people increasingly getting into computer stuff.

but alas, as mentioned in the book Because Internet, while my generation (millenials) had to learn some tech as a bar for using computers and the internet in the first place, this isn't the case for zoomers and younger: everything has been made easy for them, and indeed in my social circles it is people my age who tend to not just be good at computer stuff, but also to be interested in it in the first place.

of course, accessibility is overall a good thing. i just am lamenting the lack of genuinely interested people.

in university, in my computer science classes, most of the people present were there not out of genuine interest for computer science, but because that knowledge is thought to be highly demanded in the market. again, while this is technically useful, it is unfortunate that it has, in my view, pushed nerds to the wayside. in the case of universities, it has also corrupted curriculums: academic content (which is what universities are supposedly about) keeps retreating in favor of more practical information technology knowledge, making both demographics (academy-oriented and industry-oriented) dissatisfied at having to waste time learning the other half (uni courses in france are largely not elective). i would rather have schools dedicated to practical information technology on one hand, and universities focusing on academic understanding on the other, and let people pick which one they want; or even better, mix and match course from either.

posted on 2021-10-25