This is an insight

https://today.ttu.edu/posts/2021/09/Stories/why-is-computer-science-unpopular-among-women

1. Why is the gender imbalance in computer science such a problem in the field? This is a problem since having a diverse mentality can yield better results than having a narrow scope of thought. Having a more well-rounded team dynamic. Just because someone is a specific gender does not mean they can be valuable in the decision-making process or even be successful in a field.
2. The article talks about several possible causes of the gender gap. Which one of these do you think is the biggest contributor? Interest and expectations of success from the confidence in their own abilities. That people tend to choose careers that make use of their strongest abilities. Women might gravitate away from IT since they posess multiple cognitive abilities at the same level so there are additional oppotunities to them. The article said it best “Yeah, I can do this thing, but I’m just better at this other thing, so I’m gonna go do that.”, we tend to gravitate to what we do best instead of causing undue stress on ourselves. The fear of failing in a role that we are not well-versed in can have a debilitating effect. Role congruity theory talks about people choose their career path based on what society has put value on which tends to be gender stereotyped. Men generally gravitate to what the article stated as agentic roles, while women to communal roles. Which in a nutshell would be men are looking for power, while women are looking for fulfillment. As we progress through the years it seems women are more willing to breach through both the agentic and communal roles while men have an aversion to traditionally female roles. Lastly, the ‘innate’ abilities and sterotypes play a role, whereas women would want to place more weight on a career that aligns more with their natural talents.
3. Is there any other factor you think could play a role? The entire mentality men have with women in the workplace could deter women for wanting to be in the environment and that will not let them grow. Being able to see past the gender identity and see the person as a contributing factor would help break the barriers.

Do you think the author makes a strong argument?

yes, I believe Matt Welsh has a strong argument that programming could become obselete. With each new advance in technology there is a loss of understanding as we become accustomed to that ability being automated. We see such habits going to the wayside with calling people, remembering information, and even basic tasks such as writing. Look at the project Maven, we have already started machine learning to identify personnel on full motion imagery, essentially eliminating the human error aspect.

Do you disagree with him in any way?

I do believe there will be a slight percentage that won’t be able to explored since we humans have yet to explore that knowledge. If we are training the AI to accomplish tasks that we already know it will take some time to go through every possibility until it can predict the scenario. Just as we advanced to this point in life, it will all take time before we find the information needed to improve.

How do you see tools like ChatGPT affecting the field of computer programming?

From what we saw in class ChatGPT is still in its younger stage when it comes to computer programming, with that being said, I would not be suprised if ChatGPT will gain more information to write more complex programs as the populace adds code to the openweb. It may be useful to write small programs that aren’t necessarily the main focus and aren’t given a ton of variables. As we have progressed in any coding language we started making things easier for ourselves to automate some processes such as java.util.scanner and java.time.LocalDateTime. Those alone cut down on a lot of coding that we would have to do if we wanted to write it all by hand.

https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2023/1/267976-the-end-of-programming/fulltext

Impostor syndrome is described as feeling inadequate in the workplace, that leads to the fear of being labeled a fraud or chronic self doubt. When you are having heavy doubts of what you are doing is even correct anymore. All the while you are afraid of being exposed that you shouldn’t “belong” there. This phenomenom affects roughly 70% of people at some point in their lives. It could be the feeling that you are only succeeding due to luck, and not because of your talents or skills. Essentially it revolves around second guessing ones worth in a specific area.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/02/13/the-dubious-rise-of-impostor-syndrome

https://time.com/5312483/how-to-deal-with-impostor-syndrome/

I have personally experienced impostor syndrome while in computer science when I started doubting my own skills with java. I got overwhelmed with the project that I didn’t even think it was possible or where to start. It was worse when I thought I was doing well in the class and turned in labs/projects in a timely manner.

The article covers that within the world of programming, developers can feel developer impostor syndrome since there are many approaches, languages and methods to accomplish a task. That in itself makes it difficult for a developer or programmer to know everything. Since technology is ever-growing it is impossible to keep up with everything new that comes out. This can make some of the practices learned obsolete which can enhance the feeling of being an impostor. One of the ways to mitigate the feeling was to embrace it, remembering that you have constant learning and growth within your field. Another way is to keep track of your achievements, by listing the achievements that you have already accomplished sets a reminder that you are able to complete difficult feats in the past. Lastly, to promote teamwork and camaraderie, you are not alone in this situation, there are other people that either understand it more or have wisdom of a problem set you have.

A way to get over impostor syndrome is to remind yourself of what you have accomplished in the past and what hurdles you had to overcome to get there. That the feeling will pass as long as you chip away at the task at hand. Have to remember that you do not have to know everything in the field, relying on others for information isn’t a downfall.