Amjad Masad, the co-founder and CEO of the AI coding platform Replit, is not all for young people learning computer science if they have no interest in it.
In a new interview on the podcast 20VC, Masad called the idea pretty dumb.
“If you don’t feel like you’re drawn to it like a fly drawn to a light, then don’t go into it because someone told you you’re going to make a boatload of money working for Google,” he said. “It’s pretty dumb to tell people to go into computer science if they’re not really intrinsically interested in it.”
He added that while the early 2000s saw people entering the field out of curiosity about computers and programming, it has become an overly “hyped up” discipline, with CS departments “exploding” as it turned into a fast track to high-paying jobs. He added that AI has now changed that equation.
According to him, the signs of this shift have been there for some time, as he referenced a March 2025 appearance at DPPPN where he said, “I no longer think you should learn how to code.” The reaction was immediate. “It went super viral. People were pissed,” he said on 20VC.
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