Wow, almost every comment on there sounds like it belongs on /r/iamverysmart. They also match tone with one friend I still have on facebook, a guy who went to the same rural Christian high school as me and is now a London lawyer who sounds like he's competing to be the most pretentious person on earth every time he opens his mouth.
I've been trying to put my finger on what bothers me about that guy, and the econjobrumors people, and I think it's just the general un-empathetic contempt that they seem to offer pretty much everyone.
HN has it's fair share of bad habits (god help you if you post a demo website that doesn't work well on mobile, for example), but to me the overall tone feels respectful and kind, and most criticism is directed at the work rather than at the creator. That's what keeps me here, and why I stay the hell away from sycophant factories like the linked forum.
This was particularly true during the pre-crash years when Econ was the _default_ college major because finance was so much more lucrative than other disciplines.
Frankly, now CS is the _default_ college major in at least the elite sort of places with an abundance of smart students with a lack of direction. A career as in software (whether it be as a SWE or PM) is on a per hour basis now so much more lucrative than most other disciplines.
I'm a Princeton alum. The largest Freshman declared major is CS [1]. That's from a Dean's mouth. I was absolutely shocked since we are one of the most prominent WS feeder schools.
[1] presumably some will switch majors but piling into a lucrative major as a freshman is a strong signal of how students perceive the industries.
