Are you kidding me? Yes, let’s all play on stereotypes and
marginalize a major. I hope you never write for The Guardian again.
Issue a formal apology.

As I read this atrocious article, the only thing I can
think of is the Academic Decathlon scene from the movie “Billy
Madison,” starring Adam Sandler.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlPw6MKvvIc

Why does this exist? There are serious things going on at
our university and the UC as a whole. It’d be nice if the
“journalists” who are supposed to keep us informed reported on
things of more substance than one writer’s impressions of some
members of a particular major. Go fuck yourself.

Dear Mr. Fuhrmann, First I would like to applaud your
decision to leave the computer science major. It obviously was not
a good fit for you. You need a role in life where you can “smell
the roses,” and run around with flowers on your head, prancing
through fields happiness and sunshine. With unicorns, fairies, and
tiny little butterflies singing. Hard work, dedication, and love
for a field is certainly not your forte. But I wonder, while you
were typing this piece of filth of an article, did you stop to
think about the keyboard you were using, or the word processor? Did
you think about the millions of lines of code living on your
smartphone when you checked your Facebook feed? How about the hours
of work invested in this very website that now features your
rubbish of an article? Next time you choose to get the hamsters in
your head running, why don’t you write a discriminatory and
prejudice ridden piece about a particular gender, sexual
orientation, or race. Hopefully then you’ll be firmly kicked in the
rear and out the door by your “so called” editor, like you should
have been for writing this piece of garbage. Sincerely, A
concerned, offended, skydiving, rock climbing, marathon running
computer science major, that smells the roses.

Discretion aside, I think it behooves the author to
consider the fact that an introductory level programming class is
by no means any more indicative of the people within CS than an
intro-level biology class is of pre-med students. Students will
change majors or get weeded out. And of course, acting like four
students are any way indicative of a diverse group of people is
just silly—I would advise you take a stats class or eight.
Furthermore, if your major change was to journalism or something,
then I would advise you learn to write better. Your grammar is
awful, and your writing style is worse. Your attempts at humor come
off as ignorant, mean-spirited, and extremely bitter. Oh, and next
time, do yourself a favor and use a pseudonym before publishing
your next masterpiece.

It’s depressing that this slides for articles in
newspapers. Albeit it is an opinions article, making vast
generalizations about a major and a group of people who share a
common interest shows a lack of research and a lack of critical
analysis. My high school newspaper (which I was the columnist for)
wrote better, current, well-researched and substantial articles
than this one. This article has no statistics to back it, relies on
personal evidence of the author, who obviously has not met many
computer science majors. Please retract this article and consider
(1) writing articles on topics that matter, (2) hiring actual
writers and (3) refraining from perpetuating and creating
stereotypes.

Wow this article is so heartfelt and true that I swear this
was a letter directed directly towards me. But it’s too late to
change Kevin, I am in too deep. It’s that first sentence that
really spoke to me.

Thank you so much for your rant. I really needed a break
from studying for finals, and your article made me laugh real hard.
I thought I’ve seen bad but wow this just takes the cake. Now I see
why the colleges make us go through the gauntlet of writing
classes. Major props for your passionate bias. I’m no computer
science major, but damn even I feel insulted by your inflammatory
comments. So what if a few individuals don’t see enough time
outside, that does not mean you can condemn the rest of the flock
for the minority. These guys just want to get their A, and dammit
we didn’t come to UCSD for a 3.0 when we know we could do more. If
you have issues with individual CS majors, then settle that
yourself, but you’re doing nothing good to your position if you
turn everyone against you. I really hope this is a joke because
this article is just designed to piss off people.

I don’t know about you, but I found this article pretty dam
insulting with viscously exaggerated stereotypes reigning from
beginning to end. As far as I know from direct experience in the
“dungeon,” every derogatory claim you’ve made has been inaccurate.
People working in the lab and in the major have been the sweetest,
most helpful people in the world who not only are capable of
spending hours hard at work on homework that they actually enjoy,
but they participate in many activities outside of computer science
as well. If anything, the multitude of people I have encountered in
the lab and in the major have been the most vibrant individuals I
have befriended in my stay so far at UCSD. I’m sorry your
experience was not the same, but considering the limited time you
spent in computer science related courses, please consider that the
unfortunate experience you had may very well not represent the
generality of this major.

The atrocious grammar and writing. Did the Gaurdian really let this slide? I CANNOT.

The opening line was terrible, and it went downhill from there. Let’s talk about good writing, just kidding. We’re talking about you’re article, literally the opposite.

Thanks, for sharing your prejudices against computer science majors. Although I’m an “impersonal” computer science major who “doesn’t run” (aside from three marathons this year alone), I was actually quite offended by your remarks.