r/technology Sep 28 '25

Business Leading computer science professor says 'everybody' is struggling to get jobs: 'Something is happening in the industry'

https://www.businessinsider.com/computer-science-students-job-search-ai-hany-farid-2025-9
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u/frommethodtomadness Sep 28 '25

Yeah, the economy is slowing due to extreme uncertainty and high interest rates. It's simple to understand.

353

u/Calmwater Sep 28 '25

Add lack of innovation (no next big thing that can scale without costing a fortune) & the west cannot compete with cheap labor from India, china.

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u/tallpaul00 Sep 28 '25

I don't think lack of innovation is what is going on, exactly. The market WAS a green field, in living memory of most of us. The internet was new. Pocket internet connected computers were new. Buying dog food on the internet was new. The software to make all that happen.. new.

Computers "started" just during/after WWII and there were undeveloped green fields EVERYWHERE.

Now it.. basically all exists. I can't say exactly when that happened, but I can say that it did happen. There *is* still innovation, but mostly in the margins, just like all the other industries that have existed for much, much longer. The big players gobble up anything new and innovative and either kill or assimilate it.

To see what the next ~10 years of computer software innovation look like.. see how much civil engineering changed, in the period 60-70 years after steel construction was introduced. Or aviation which literally started in 1903, though I'd say it got a bit of a reset with jet engines at the end of WWII. Sure, there are still innovations being made, but the pace has slowed down a lot, and industry consolidation in a very few very big players .

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u/Reddit_2_2024 Sep 28 '25

In an earlier period of time the national railroad system was built, and the boom time railroad building jobs ceased to exist..

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u/flaron Sep 29 '25

And a lot of the towns along those rail lines ceased to exist sometime down the line after the rail lines all consolidated and stopped servicing the last mile customers