Renaissance Geeks

I am sad to admit that I am one of those people who is sending jobs overseas. However, I'm not delusional enough to feel like cranking out more computer science students is the answer to our competitiveness problems. What difference do more engineers make when you can hire five in India or China for every one here? It's not like we're going to make it up in volume. Nor can I in my wildest dreams imagine why our captains of industry think any college-bound student with enough smarts to get into engineering school isn't also smart enough to see the dilemma and steer clear. So, it was interesting to read about the increasing trend to mix the engineer/computer science with other fields.

On campuses today, the newest technologists have to become renaissance geeks. They have to understand computing, but they also typically need deep knowledge of some other field, from biology to business, Wall Street to Hollywood. And they tend to focus less on the tools of technology than on how technology is used in the search for scientific breakthroughs, the development of new products and services, or the way work is done.

As usual, I am either a man ahead of my time, or I did things backward. I got the engineering degrees and worked my way into the industry that's being offshored.