Gates Baffled

Well, Bill Gates is baffled and he's not afraid to admit it. He can't figure out why more kids aren't studying the computer sciences! Even if high salaries and job opportunities for college-educated computer scientists aren't well publicized, Gates believes that since kids use technology they should be interested in studying it!

While I generally believe this is true, I use cars every day but I am not at all interested in studying how they work. Also, I use the weather report everyday, but I know nothing about how a forecaster does his job, nor am I at all interested in learning meteorology. Further, I spend much of my day sleeping and, for the record, I have no plans to become a sleep therapist!

I think that the information revolution is at hand. People are going be very interested in using the technology to advance their own lot, but I don't think that translates directly into recruiting people who are driven to improve or study computer science. During the industrial revolution, factory owners harnessed the technology to improve their output. However, these factory owners didn't quit their jobs to study industrial processes at the local university.

Also, many kids go through high school without much exposure to the computer sciences. As mentioned on this blog previously, computer science classes are being cut from the high school curriculum due to a shortage of funding.

Given this, there is going to be a major shortage of American-educated tech workers in the near future. This is only going to increase the amount of off-shoring. Once people see this, they are going to be less likely to encourage their kids to enter the field of computer science at college or technical school. This will only serve to increase the need for off-shoring yet again. Do you see the negative feedback loop we can create?

Something needs to be done to correct this sooner rather than later. Thoughts?