His reason for why people are "getting interested" now seemed very weak to me:
Most have majors in other areas but recognize, probably correctly, that having programming skills will likely increase their chances of gaining employment in their own field.
I would say this was just as true in the 90s as it is today.
I would say this was just as true in the 90s as it is today.
In my experience, it is much more true today. If you see an artists or designers with actionscript or javascript on their resume, it's a plus and hardly surprising (unlike 10 years ago). Scientific computing has exploded in the last 10 years due to the availability of data and computing resources. I hardly know any science researchers who don't at least collaborate with people who have programming and computer science skills.
That's the reason he gives for people initially going into CS, but he says that, once they get there, they tend to really enjoy the material. Apparently it wasn't so in the dot com bubble; people freely admitted to hating the material.
It may help that they "broadened" their requirements.
That is, before when kids showed up to get rich, they struggled through the advanced math and hated it. Now when kids show up to get rich, they expect the advanced math, but see easier/more-engaging routes through things like web, UX or media spurs.
I hope that's not true of a university like Stanford. I know it's not true for my school (which is nowhere near Stanford in terms of prestige or name-recognition).
Most have majors in other areas but recognize, probably correctly, that having programming skills will likely increase their chances of gaining employment in their own field.
I would say this was just as true in the 90s as it is today.