We can partly blame television for the impression that certain occupations are never routine or boring. The patient is always diagnosed and cured within 45 minutes, which is precisely the amount of time it takes to catch and convict a criminal. Occasionally, there are flashes of reality even on TV. “Law and Order” shows how detectives crack a case by following one small, frustrating clue after another. But even here, the 45-minute straightjacket rules. Lt. Van Buren instructs her detectives: “Well, the victim was drunk, so check every bar within 10 blocks.” Immediately, the scene cuts to the bartender who provides the next clue, but we don’t see the hours of fruitless investigation by the detectives and the junior police officers that led to this moment.

The issue is not whether a subject is boring or not, but your ability to live with particular types of routine that can lead to boredom. Tiffany should be asking herself whether she prefers the routine of working as a psychologist— listening day-in, day-out to people complaining that their parents screwed up their lives—over the routine of constructing dozens of menu entries for the interface of an application.

non-Myth #2: You Spend
Most of Your Working Life in
Front of a Computer Screen

For someone to refuse to study computer science for this reason is simply ridiculous. Many people sit in front of computers all day. Computer screens are ubiquitous in all professions in finance, administration, government offices, customer service, and so forth. I am certain my travel agent spends more time looking at her computer screen than I do. From watching movies like Wall Street and Working Girl, I gather that securities traders spend their lives looking at six screens simultaneously.

Our medical system has recently undergone extensive computerization: a patient’s history, test results, and diagnostic images are stored on a network of computers. During a visit to a doctor, the patient sits quietly while the doctor reads the history, studies test results, orders X-rays, writes prescriptions, and summarizes the visit, all on a computer. Of course

The decline of
interest in studying
computer science is
usually attributed to
a set of perceptions
that students have
about the subject.

doctors continue to perform physical examinations, but many modern diagnostic and surgical procedures involve “scopes” of various kinds, so that the physician is frequently looking at a computer screen.

Tiffany is free to decide that options trading is more exciting than programming, but that choice is not going to save her from the constant use of computers. Certainly, sitting in front of a computer developing software for an insurance company is preferable to sitting in front of a computer entering data from insurance claims.

non-Myth #3: You have
to Work Long hours

People who work in high-tech industries complain about long hours, but this is true of many occupations, including prestigious professions, in particular, in the early stages before you achieve a high level of competence and the freedom to work independently. The competition among young attorneys to clock hours is notorious. Young scientists work long hours in an effort to expand their list of publications during the short period before they are reviewed for tenure.

In 1984, Libby Zion, an 18-year-old student, died in a New York hospital from a fatal drug interaction. She was being cared for by young, overworked, interns and residents, who were not aware of a medication she had been taking. New York subsequently enacted a law forbidding residents from working more than 80 hours a week. In comparison, spending 50 hours a week working as a software engineer doesn’t seem so bad.

A career as an airline pilot sounds
more adventurous than a career as a
programmer, but Tiffany should not
choose to become a pilot in the expec-
tation of fewer hours at work. Spend-
ing long hours in a cubicle in a hi-tech
firm, where your hours are flexible and
you are free to go out for lunch or to the
gym, is not as difficult as being cooped
up in the small cockpit of an airplane
for many hours at a time, on a schedule
over which you have no control.

non-Myth #4:
Programming Is Asocial

Yes, but it depends what you mean by asocial. It is true that a programmer spends long hours by herself in front of a computer screen, although there are also meetings with team members and customers. There certainly are “social” professions where you are in constant contact with other people. The problem is that in most cases the human contact is superficial and asymmetrical, because you don’t “chat” with your “clients.” You may not even want to develop a warm relationship with your clients, for example, if you are a police detective interrogating hardened criminals.

A physician is almost always in contact with other people, but much of that is superficial contact with patients. A consultation may take just 15 or 20 minutes, once every few weeks or months. Certainly, the contact is asymmetrical: I tell my doctor every detail of my life that is related to my health, while she tells me nothing about hers.

Nursing is considered to be one of the most caring of professions, but the reality of modern medical care is far from the romantic image. I recall being hospitalized for tests and feeling stressed out, but Chrissie Williams and Donna Jackson (nurses from the BBC medical soap opera “Holby City”) did not come over to hold my hand and reassure me. The nurses at the hospital were themselves stressed out with the responsibility for 40 patients, and they barely had time to perform the myriad technical aspects of the job such as administering medication and measuring vital signs.

It is reasonable for Tiffany to choose to become a social worker because she likes helping people direct-