April 27, 2026
Group therapy, but make it code
CS Professor: To My Students
CS Prof’s pep talk goes viral: ‘Go slow’ vs ‘Build your own OS’
TLDR: A CS professor’s viral letter urges students to slow down, set ethical lines, and resist hype, echoing his “AI vegetarian” stance. Comments split between applause, confessions about distraction, and a rallying meme: “start three 20-year projects,” sparking a debate on craft, careers, and what college CS is really for.
A computer science professor just dropped a heartfelt open letter to his students, and the internet lit up like a server farm. In the note, Brent Yorgey urges students to slow down, think deeply, set ethical boundaries, and care more about people than output. He even links to his stance on large language models (AI text tools), calling himself a “generative AI vegetarian” and saying he refuses to use them here. The letter itself is here: Read it.
Cue the comments: one camp turned the thread into a group hug, calling it brave and overdue. “It’s the best honest advice I have seen to date,” cheered one. Another admitted the struggle is real, echoing the prof’s plea to carve out distraction-free time: “Currently struggling hard to achieve this,” one user confessed, as others nodded along about the attention economy.
But the spicy energy came from a rallying cry that instantly became a meme: “Start three two-decade projects”—your own programming language, operating system, and home lab. Yes, someone actually said that, with “Start now” energy. Meanwhile, a sharp aside asked if college CS is about more than being job-ready, poking the industry-first mindset. The vibe overall? Equal parts manifesto, therapy session, and DIY rebellion—with readers split between “go slowly, be kind” and “build your own OS and become unstoppable.”
Key Points
- •Brent A. Yorgey published an open letter to students on April 27, 2026, reflecting on the software industry’s condition.
- •He lists industry issues: difficult entry-level jobs, poor IP respect, emphasis on code quantity and short-term profits, harmful uses of tech, systemic bias, and resource-heavy computing.
- •He reaffirms his motivations for computing (beauty, creation, helping people) and offers guidance he deems more important than course content.
- •He advises rejecting narratives of technological inevitability, setting ethical boundaries early, cultivating deep focus, caring about craft, documenting well, and prioritizing people and justice over profits.
- •A linked March 7, 2026 statement declares he will not use LLMs, citing labor exploitation and resource concerns, calling himself a "generative AI vegetarian" and referencing Sean Boots and Anthony Moser.