Technology or Liberal Arts? :: Personal Reflection

I have always had two interesting, but opposite loves. I have always found myself referring back to computers and philosophy in my everyday routine. I would usually spend hours reading and analyzing Plato’s doctrines or tinkering with the insides of my custom made PC, sometimes both at the same time. However, if ever asked which one I would like to pursue as a career, I would have to stop and think about it. Both computer science and philosophy have a lot to offer, but at the same time, a lot to dislike. There are advantages and disadvantages for getting a computer science degree. Computer science is a growing field that isn’t slowing down. Companies are constantly looking for young bright gurus who know how to understand and handle the amount of new information being created every day. Even in this current economic situation, people who work with computers have very stable jobs. We as a society are at a point where we rely too heavily on computers to accomplish tasks for us, and cannot just simply stop using them. Financially, computer science also looks promising. Since computers are alien to most people, the fact that there are a small percentage of people that actually understand computers, people who know are considered to have a â€Å"unique† set of skills. So employers are ready to give fat paychecks to anyone that has proven that they are experts in the field. Since I have had previous jobs in this field, I can confirm that there is good money in it. For exampl e, being a junior in a high school I was given a part time job (which later became full time) which started me off at $9.25 an hour. This later increased as they saw how skilled I was. On the other hand, despite all of these positive reasons, computer science has a very promising outlook as a job for it is quite boring and dull. I would find myself hating my job and myself as I type away at a keyboard inside of a cubical. It does not stimulate the body or the mind and I would find myself looking forward to simple things, such as being first to get to the fresh pot of coffee, as a source of excitement. As well as not enjoying my job, my degree would be outdated within a few years. Which means though I may have been working for a company for multiple years, a young naive college graduate could easily take my place.