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I've always found the whole "Get a STEM degree if you want ample employment" argument to be a bit specious. It implies that all degrees that fall under this rather large umbrella are of equal worth, but the reality is that prospects are better for those under the "TE" portion of this umbrella.

Even within that smaller subsection, those working on, say, Aerospace Engineering degrees are likely envious of the prospects of Computer Science guys, and the Computer Science guys are looking at their upper-division coursework wondering if they shouldn't just bail out and test the waters of whatever startup hotspot is on their minds.

It's better than worrying about what you could possibly do with your Theater degree, but it's still stressful for the people under this giant umbrella of promise.

At the end of the day, I guess everyone feels like the grass is greener somewhere.

Sounds like it had to do with the computers. Damn shame.

Edit: My mistake, the computers detected an engine parameter that was out of bounds. See you guys early Tuesday morning for round 2.

I was hoping we'd see another fine article from Jeff Atwood on the important distinction between coding and programming, something that is sometimes derided as largely pedantic, yet never fails to arouse interesting discussion.

Unfortunately, this seems to be a more blunt, standoffish interpretation of Peter Norvig's classic article on the long road to programming competence "Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years." Jeff Atwood even references the article in this post, which I find disheartening, as Peter Norvig never once says something like "Don't even bother." Self-improvement is hardly a fruitless endeavor, and while not everyone is capable of writing good code, much less making a living off of it, there are a lot of wonderful things you could learn about yourself through such an undertaking. Plus, there are far less productive/interesting ways for people to spend what precious little time they have.

No worries. It is a big decision, so you definitely want multiple perspectives. Are you in a position where you can't take a year or two off from school, or perhaps longer, to see where things with this job take you? I know scholarships and financial aid can sometimes leave you with your hands tied, but if this is not the case you might want to consider a leave of absence.

Plenty of people leave school and finish their degrees later on (sometimes much later), so you shouldn't feel bad about leaving it on hold for now, especially since you've got a job lined up.

Then you should probably ask them :)

I was curious about this. As a student who will be applying for an engineering job one day, I'm not sure what the rules are when it comes to resumes, but I had a feeling that flashy was not the way to go.

That said, some of these look really good. My favorites are the Stars and the Shearling Point options, both of which are just subtle enough for my tastes. Best of luck to Mr. Caldwell in his future endeavors.

I'd also like to know this, though I imagine it's possible. I've been thinking about what sort of things I'd like to remember with these methods, and I feel that the Periodic Table would be a good, fun place to start.

>Creativity is destroyed in academia.

I wonder what this means for nuclear engineering's future, because I'm looking at Transatomic Power's team and I'm seeing a lot of influence from academia. Both members of the actual management team are PhD candidates, and all three members of the advisory board are professors. Granted this is one sample, but it seems like the barriers to entry for energy startups in general, but especially those dealing with nuclear power, are too steep at the moment for anything to move forward without help from academia.

I might be wrong, but I was under the impression that engineering, with the exception of software engineering, was still very much a "suit and tie" field.

Definitely a bit intense, but I agree with the sentiment here. It's a shame that someone (judging by the popularity of his reddit AMAs) so talented at communicating science and technology to the public could be so shortsighted in his view of spaceflight's future. In regards to affordable spaceflight, NASA can't, but perhaps SpaceX and other private companies with brave entrepreneurs at the helm can. It would be nice if Neil DeGrasse Tyson were to meet with Elon Musk and hear his vision of humanity's future in space.