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Comment by currentoor | Hacker News Reader

There is a major flaw in this article. Software developers are not cogs. Just because someone has an engineering degree does not make them just as good as any other developer. Being able to write great software usually comes from passion and practice, not a piece of paper that says "Computer Science BS". Some of the best developers I know didn't even get an engineering degree. Is there a shortage of people with pieces of paper? Maybe not. Is there a shortage of people that love writing software enough to spend most nights and weekends doing it? Yes.

This is based on my experience interviewing candidates for two small tech companies.

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> Is there a shortage of people that love writing software enough to spend most nights and weekends doing it?

And this is actually another, if not part of, the problem. I’m passionate, I would even return to pull a couple of all-nighters. But I would never do it again for a company which I don’t own. I have a family, I want to spend time with all people who matter to me. I don’t want to to spend my time with your company, your engineering problems, and in the end probably get replaced by a cheap outsourced worker who is competent enough to maintain my code and add a couple of smaller features.

Degrees are no guarantee, but that’s how it rolls. You believe people more if they have some evidence, and you even believe them more than a friend of you recommended her. Blindly trusting people you don’t know while hiring is a recipe for disaster.

I don’t trust you. Give me money and you’ll eventually gain my trust. In return I’ll give you solutions for your problems. You probably don’t trust me, too.

>Some of the best developers I know didn't even get an engineering degree.

How do you know this is just not confirmation bias on your part. You like to think that degree-less people are somehow vaguely 'better.' You know some developers that don't have a degree. Consequently they must be the best developers you know. I think most would agree that you would need actual double blind research including some way to order developers by ability that made sense. You would also have to have a sufficiently large sample size randomly chosen instead of your biased sample of a few people you know. It stands to reason, though, with no research done that you are just more likely to know more developers without degrees since only 18% of the population have a Bachelors and 7% have a masters.

> You like to think that degree-less people are somehow vaguely 'better.'

I don't think that he or she said that.

I think you misinterpreted what I said. All I said was, a degree is not a necessary or sufficient condition for being a great developer. Evidenced by the fact that there exist great developers without degrees. I'm not drawing any whacky conclusions about one group being "better" than another.

Also, for what it's worth I graduated with two technical degrees from descent university. Most of the developers I know have engineering degrees.

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