Why to study computer science

When I decided to study computer science I just wanted to understand problems using logic. I didn’t expect curiosity and creativity to be so rewarded. I also didn't expect to benefit so much from studying it.

Learning how to program computers and making money coding are the obvious benefits people want. But there are also benefits I wished I had noticed sooner. These benefits are the reason I am writing this essay.

Freedom. Because it is easy to associate computer science with programming, it is also easy to imagine “freedom” as working from your laptop on a Caribbean beach. This example of “freedom” is real but it does not capture the whole picture.

Computer science is transversal to all scientific fields. This means it is relevant to all college degrees you could study. And surprisingly, this also means you can benefit from all the opportunities each degree provides. Studying computer science allows you to work on biotech, design or whatever you want.

Having so much freedom gets scary at first but there is no going back once you fall in love with it.

Intellectual curiosity. Computer science being relevant to everything tickles intellectual curiosity very hard. All of a sudden you can do so much and sometimes you feel sad you cannot do all of it.

People will ask you for help with their projects and oftentimes what they do will be very interesting. From crop harvesting prediction using machine learning models to building bots to make bets.

Meeting interesting people. It is important to meet people you look up to. It’s beneficial because it expands your ideas of what you can do.

Almost all of the people I respect and find interesting either studied, self-studied or want to study computer science. Of course I am biased because all of my experiences have revolved around college. But after I dropped out 1.5 years ago, the people I met outside of academia continued to follow this rule.

Global. When you build something that helps an Indian guy from Telangana and also helps your friends from college, it hits differently. It expands your thinking. In contrast, unless you can afford to study abroad, in most fields, the work you can do will be local to your country or city.

Cheap. Most of computer science relates to software and abstract stuff. This means most of the things you will be doing are also cheap to do. If they are not cheap enough, they will be cheaper over time.

Computer science is an acquired taste. The first few years can feel too much. But over time you will be free to explore all other fields you find interesting. And if you like a field enough, switching from computer science will be easy. So if you do not know what to study, computer science is the best starting point I can think of.