Computer Science is the Present

Thought I’d make yet another contribution to WSO’s favourite discussion topic — Tech vs. Finance.

Right now, some of the world’s largest companies (Apple, Google, Amazon, etc…) are in tech, CS is the largest course at loads of elite unis, and the “secret” is out that the most lucrative post-undergrad path may be quantitative finance, á la Renaissance/JS/2S. There’s nothing “novel” or “innovative” about this idea; it is well-known. So is the fact that a well-qualified CS student can waltz into a FAANG role and earn $200K (= €200K lol) in their first year on a sub-20-hour workweek, whilst their IB peers may earn less on 4x as many hours. These points are beaten to death — we know.

Nonetheless, I don’t see these as compelling arguments as for why CS (computer science, definitely not Credit Suisse) is the future, in the context of “what should I study.” Between the FAANG hiring freezes, Musk’s realization with Twitter that cutting 75% of Big Tech workforces won’t really make a difference, the inability of quant investment strategies to prove across-the-board superiority to non-quant methods, and the everlasting stability of big finance…bonuses did climb post-2008 after all…I just don’t see why pursuing CS isn’t “skating to where the puck is” rather than “skating to where the puck is going to be.”

Sure, there are niches within CS that I think will be of heightened interest, notably AI safety. This also isn’t to say that CS definitely isn’t a logical field to pursue or without it’s merits. It’s more an argument that there’s no “alpha” into going after CS right now. Its advantages are well-known and “priced in,” and based on what people have been saying here, its disadvantages may not be.

Just do what you like.