Replit’s CEO says it’s dumb to study computer science thinking you can make a ‘boatload’ at Google

• Replit’s CEO advises against studying computer science just for the money.

• Masad said there is still room for people who are deeply passionate about computer science.

• Some tech leaders agree on the enduring value of computer science education despite AI’s impact on coding.

Don’t pursue computer science just for the money, he says CEO of Replit.

In an episode of the “20VC” podcast released on Saturday, Amjad Masad said that young people who are not deeply interested in CS should not study this subject.

“If you don’t feel drawn to you like a fly is drawn to a light, don’t take a job because someone told you you’ll make a boatload of money working for Google,” he said. “It’s pretty stupid to tell people to go into computer science if they’re not really interested.”

Masad co-founded Replit, an integrated coding environment, in 2016. The company has since evolved into an AI agent-led app builder and now supports Microsoft’s GitHub, Cursor, and Vibration coding tools like Lovable and Urgent. It is backed by investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue and Y Combinator.

In the podcast, Masad added that in the early 2000s, people went into this field because they were passionate about understanding computers and programming. But after that, it became an “excited” topic and university computer science departments “exploded” because it became the easiest sector to make money in, he said. This is no longer the case with artificial intelligence.

“Now, if you’re interested, there are still ways to contribute. You can go into machine learning and AI and work in big labs or a company like ours,” he said, referring to machine learning.

Even as AI models advance, he said: fundamentals like data structures and algorithms will not change and technology will always need people who understand the “fundamentals” of CS.

‘A great major’

Masad joins a group of tech leaders who say computer science education remains valuable.

In a podcast appearance earlier this month, venture capitalist and Confirm CEO Max Levchin He said that writing good code is an art and artificial intelligence cannot take that away.

“I don’t think LLMs will inherently always deliver beautifully crafted, elegant and yet scientifically accurate code,” Levchin said.

“I wouldn’t have had this if I didn’t have a solid foundation in computer science as a programmer.” he added.

Artificial Intelligence pioneer Geoffrey Hinton said in an interview with Business Insider published in December that AI is replacing some coding tasks, but that doesn’t mean a Computer Science degree isn’t valuable.

“Many people think that CS degree “It’s just programming and stuff,” Hinton said.

“There is so much more to coding than just writing code,” he added. “Computer science is a great major to learn systems thinking.”

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