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The US Economy Needs More "Cool" Nerds
Hugh Pickens writes "Steve Lohr writes in the NY Times that the country needs more 'cool' nerds — professionals with hybrid careers that combine computing with other fields like medicine, art, or journalism. Not enough young people are embracing computing, often because they are leery of being branded nerds. Educators and technologists say that two things need to change: the image of computing work, and computer science education in high schools. Today, introductory courses in computer science are too often focused merely on teaching students to use software like word processing and spreadsheet programs, says Janice C. Cuny, a program director at the National Science Foundation adding that the Advanced Placement curriculum concentrates too narrowly on programming. 'We're not showing and teaching kids the magic of computing,' Cuny says. The NSF is working to change this by developing a new introductory high school course in computer science and seeking to overhaul Advanced Placement courses as well. The NSF hopes to train 10,000 high school teachers in the modernized courses by 2015. Knowledge of computer science and computer programming is becoming a necessary skill for many professions, not only science and technology but also increasingly for marketing, advertising, journalism and the creative arts. 'We need to gain an understanding in the population that education in computer science is both extraordinarily important and extraordinarily interesting,' says Alfred Spector, vice president for research and special initiatives at Google. 'The fear is that if you pursue computer science, you will be stuck in a basement, writing code. That is absolutely not the reality.'"
Troll detected, but I'll bite.
You know, it's quite possible that many of us who played football were nerds, dorks, fatsos, thugs, and other scrubs. We all got to play, too. We all had mutual respect for each other no matter what our sports skills were. The ugliest, lankiest, most uncoordinated dork would earn the team's respect just because he manned the fuck up and made it through hell week. We treated our dorks with respect and gave them slaps on the ass whenever they got through the Oklahomas on their feet.
Instead of manning up and leaving your comfort zone, people like you become vengeful, unhappy assholes who won't accomplish much in life. You'll try to make a name for yourself by joining Perverted Justice with all the other fat neckbeards, pretending to be 8 year old girls in chatrooms. You won't ever become a manager, but you will still continue to hang out by the timeclock and let the boss know who comes in late every day. You'll dedicate your life to ratting and backstabbing your way to the top, bitterly projecting your jock stereotype on every chisel-jawed engineer with a hot wife. Women will size you up at a glance and avoid you like the plague.
Punk. If Jocktroll were here he'd shit on your face.