To my students
ozark.hendrix.edu
April 27, 2026
5 min read
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
61/100
Summary
Brent A. Yorgey expresses concern about preparing students for a volatile software industry and a challenging job market for entry-level computing positions. He questions the ethics of training computer scientists amid the current political climate and issues surrounding intellectual property.
Key Takeaways
- The software industry is facing challenges such as a lack of entry-level jobs, undervaluation of intellectual property, and a focus on quantity over quality in coding.
- Individuals should be intentional about their moral and ethical boundaries in technology and resist the notion that certain technologies are "inevitable."
- Developers are encouraged to prioritize clarity and elegance in their code, write good documentation, and focus on relationships and justice over profits and productivity.
- The author refuses to use large language models (LLMs) due to concerns about their exploitation of human labor and resource consumption.
Community Sentiment
Positives
- The emphasis on ethics in engineering education is crucial, as it prepares students to navigate complex moral dilemmas in technology development.
- Recognizing the importance of treating the product as the artifact rather than just the code can lead to more impactful software development.
- There is a growing awareness of the need for ethics courses in computer science, which can help shape responsible future engineers.
Concerns
- The advice to focus on code clarity and elegance may hinder new graduates who need to prioritize shipping products quickly in a competitive industry.
- The rejection of LLMs by some professionals highlights concerns about their ethical implications and resource consumption, suggesting a divide in acceptance within the community.
- Criticism of academics giving industry advice reflects a disconnect between theoretical knowledge and practical application in fast-paced tech environments.