compsigh

"Meet cool people, build cool things." Here's the story of compsigh, the computer science club I founded at the University of San Francisco.

Updated May 2024.

The default path

The default modus operandi for computer science students today is this:

1. Think — or be pressured into thinking (often by parents) — a job in tech is lucrative; therefore, it's a career worth pursuing.
2. Crack the coding interview and get the degree.
3. Get a job working in big tech.
4. Cash out in 20 years.
5. Never code again.

This is doable, but I have a couple gripes with the default path.

Firstly, software engineering requires an insane level of dedication & craft. Assuming you don't actually care, you could brute-force your way through it, but that is — in my opinion — a miserable way to live.

Secondly, while it may have been true five years ago that a job in big tech meant greater job security, it's almost certainly no longer the case. It's not "riskier" to go and do your own thing anymore.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with working for a big tech company, even if financial gain is what you're after. The problem is when you don't have any real interest in your field, which, sadly, is the case for a nontrivial amount of students on the default path.

I wanted to take an alternate path. One in which I take ownership as a problem solver, as an engineer. One in which I could meet cool people, and build cool things.

The alternate path

Computer science is the fastest-growing major at the University of San Francisco. It was to my surprise, then, that when I joined USF in 2021, there was no general CS club on campus. Despite the friendly, small department where you can get to know some really great people — not least of which our professors — there was no culture around learning & building together, or doing anything social.

As Matthew Stanciu of Purdue Hackers — an organization I deeply admire — poignantly notes in his essay, Galactic Empire, the majority of collegiate computer science orgs are structured for the default path.

compsigh is for people looking to take the alternate path.

A club for the rest of us

There are two things that capture the essence of compsigh:

1. A chill Discord server, where members are encouraged to express themselves (the #general channel is a bit unhinged), share interesting artifacts from across the Internet, and hype up each other's work.
2. High-quality, low-stakes, in-person events. This is where friends & memories are made. Our regular gatherings include:

• Weekly socials ("compsigh nights");
• Workshops that anyone can host ("staging");
• Monthly off-campus outings ("touch grass");
• Discussions on current events in tech ("technically speaking"); and
• Our flagship annual hackathon during the Fall semester ("DEPLOY").

Our weekly Friday night social. Members play board/card games, hack on projects together, or just chill and do homework.

Members will bring things like these design books for the ambiance and making the space their own.

Check out how it was built in the Workshop!

Much love to the leadership team that helps put these on: Jet, Gursh, Quinn, Ani, and Andrew.

I don't care much for numbers. We have over 50% of the CS students at USF in our Discord, but not all show up to events. That's ok. I care much more that I've met some of my best friends here, have shipped some of my most meaningful work because of it, and that others can say the same.