this man is not calm

Chapter 539 Development History
"You can't blame it all on a lack of job opportunities!"

Professor Huang replied with a complicated expression:

"Of course, that's not all. In relatively conservative subjects, textbooks haven't been changed for many years, and teachers are still using outdated teaching methods from decades ago, so what students learn... is no longer keeping up with the times..."

After a pause, he shook his head worriedly and said:

"Even in our computer science department, this phenomenon is becoming increasingly serious. Technology outside is updated and iterated extremely quickly, with a batch of products becoming obsolete every two or three years, but our textbooks are still stuck in the past ten, twenty, or even thirty years. How can this be acceptable!"

Moore's Law is there for all to see. Especially with the advent of the Internet age, software development has entered a fast track. Let alone not paying attention to industry trends for a year or two, even neglecting it for a few months could mean falling behind the most popular cutting-edge technologies.

Today's university teachers grew up during the era when large industrial computers were just emerging. A practical new model could be as big as a two-story building, and personal home computers were unheard of.

The current situation is that internet cafes are springing up all over the country, and personal computers have entered thousands of households. They are no longer just production aids, but home appliances.

Imagine, twenty years from now, any household without a computer and internet access would be essentially out of touch with the world.

With the number of personal mobile phones still hovering around the tens of millions, not to mention ordinary people, even those working in this industry could not have predicted that the almost science fiction-like era of the future would arrive so quickly.

However, Professor Huang Kunyu, an intellectual with knowledge, work experience, and close social connections, still felt the surging tide of the times, with the new wave pushing the old one forward without stopping.

"Xiao Jin, you know... those kids who are full of hope for the future finally got into our school, only to find after graduation that most of what they learned in class is useless or even outdated. Isn't that too cruel?"

After thinking for a moment, Kim Sang replied helplessly:
"This is difficult to solve in a short time. I don't have any good ideas about university textbooks or teaching staff. I can only try to provide more internship opportunities and encourage students to spend more time studying on their own outside of class!"

In fact, similar situations exist in various industries, but the severity varies. For example, in the shipbuilding industry, there has been almost no fundamental technological advancement for half a century. Even if textbooks from half a century ago are used, the problem is not significant. At most, some practical courses need to be added in areas such as new materials, new processes, automation, computer-aided design, and simulation.

The skills-related knowledge is relatively easy to learn and not difficult to grasp.

But computer technology is different.

Programming is secondary; new tools and ideas are emerging every year, and the pace of classroom teaching cannot keep up. The most challenging aspect is the new theories in applied mathematics and algorithms. Without systematic learning, it's impossible to even begin.

A graduate from a prestigious university can't have a predictable career path, just like a programmer who can be trained for a few months and works 996 overtime.
"That's all we can do! Let's arrange more open classes each year and cooperate and exchange ideas more with your company! It's unrealistic to expect all students to keep up with the pace. It would be good enough if most of the students who have ideas could have a channel to improve."

"Okay! I'll try my best to create more internship positions to meet the needs of my juniors."

"Actually, the demand in the computer industry is very strong right now, so there is no concern about the employment of graduates for the time being. The problem is that it is becoming increasingly difficult for beginners to get started. The general feedback is that it takes at least half a year of full-time pre-job training before they can be barely used. One or two is fine, but most of them are like this, which may affect the reputation."

"Take it slow! It's good enough that the school can provide more opportunities."

Kim Sang sighed helplessly.
"With jobs no longer guaranteed, it's still quite necessary for most students to be realistic and pursue high-paying jobs with good career prospects."

"I'm still a little uneasy! In the past, it was as awkward as passing the imperial examination and becoming a scholar but not getting an official position, and having to make a living by begging."

Today's college students do seem to be in a situation where they are neither good enough for high-level jobs nor good enough for low-level ones. Outstanding graduates from prestigious universities are in a better position, but others seem to be somewhere in between.

As for why this situation occurs, essentially it's because people have high expectations for college students, but reality hasn't met those expectations.

Of course, the learning and adaptability brought by higher education will undoubtedly lead to a higher growth potential, but it requires time and resources to cultivate. Unfortunately, many small private enterprises and joint-stock companies cannot afford this cost.

Talent is mobile; training is only one aspect. The key is how to retain and make good use of it.

It's a huge loss if you finally train a good employee, only to have them poached by a competitor.

Therefore, most private enterprises and joint-stock companies still prefer to recruit from experienced professionals and supplement their recruitment with campus recruitment.

It's much more cost-effective to poach existing talent than to painstakingly train university graduates.

In the past two years, Jinxi Culture mainly relied on social recruitment and referrals to join the company. Now that it has grown bigger and stronger, it has started to have long-term training plans.

"Expanding enrollment will inevitably lead to the devaluation of academic qualifications."

"Yes!"

Huang Kunyu, who had spent half his life in education, could certainly understand what Jin Shang was saying; he just found it a little hard to accept.
"I don't expect it to be that good, I just hope it has a better reputation than other schools."

"If you really have an idea, you could consider increasing the number of master's students admitted. That should have a good effect in a short period of time."

The expansion of higher education, the devaluation of academic qualifications, and the trend of undergraduate education becoming more like high school education are actually deepening. There is even a persistent argument that undergraduate graduation will no longer require a thesis or graduation project.

To put it bluntly, apart from a few exceptionally high-quality undergraduate theses from key research universities, the quality of most undergraduate theses is just so-so. You really can't expect young people who have been instilled with academic knowledge for four years, and who may not even be able to learn it well, to have much ability to write a high-quality thesis.

In fact, there's a consensus in undergraduate education that excellent graduation theses and projects should be encouraged and awarded points, setting a high bar rather than a uniform passing grade. Truly outstanding undergraduates who publish high-quality papers can have their achievements recognized in performance evaluations and even for postgraduate admissions or government positions, but you can't expect students who have just barely gotten their diplomas after four years of struggling to write anything substantial.

In fact, the overall increase in the number of master's degree students admitted by universities is a way of temporarily keeping some high-quality graduates out of the job market, which is beneficial in relieving the pressure of labor shortage and optimizing the supply and demand relationship in the labor market.

In the last year of the 20th century, the first batch of college students (junior college students) after the expansion of higher education institutions were about to enter the human resources market. In particular, the first batch of junior college students graduated, which greatly improved the employment market that was previously dominated by junior high school graduates or even dropouts. Secondary vocational school students with special skills were in high demand, and high school students were considered to be above average talents and were highly valued.

The current severe shortage of highly qualified personnel has been greatly alleviated, especially for comprehensive group companies like Jinxi Culture, which focus on technology and culture and cover multiple fields. Their demand for capable personnel is almost endless.

On the way, Jin Shang and Professor Huang chatted for a long time, while Li Xuan and the two researchers listened without saying a word. Soon, the two arrived at the laboratory.

After changing into indoor clothes and slippers, I walked into a bright and spacious work area that resembled a computer room. There were about thirty young people who looked like students and graduate students, working under the guidance of several middle-aged people in their thirties and forties.

Before long, the commotion attracted attention, and Professor Zhang Youling, an old acquaintance, came over to greet them.

"You're here? Perfect timing, we're about to start the test..."

As soon as he finished speaking, the laboratory lights dimmed, a large screen appeared in front of him, the projector lights began to flash, and a PPT generated by the powerful office software WPS began to appear.

It was already late, but Kim Sang still rushed over just to see the effect of this demonstration.

This lab has two main projects: antivirus software and search engines. The former is not the focus today; we will soon be showcasing the latest achievements of the latter.

Applications based on web crawlers, or web spiders, automatically acquire large amounts of web content through various connections on the network, analyze and organize it according to certain rules, and then display it.

The core algorithm PageRank and its evolution show that the more high-quality websites a website links to, the higher its data quality becomes. This was Google's core competitive advantage in its previous era. Although the situation is completely different now, the essence of the theory remains the same, and the final product is naturally very similar.

Search functionality is not a recent invention; its principle is roughly to help users quickly obtain information through keyword matching. Local search applications have long been mature; the key is online applications.

This thing was invented quite early, about ten years ago, but the rise of the Internet is only a matter of the last five years. In the early days, because there were few websites, slow internet speeds, and poor connections, there was basically no demand for or room for development of online search.

The IT industry has undergone tremendous changes since around the turn of the millennium.

Directory indexing technology (similar to Yahoo!) was developed the year before Jin Shang graduated with his master's degree. Essentially, it was an online bulletin board for displaying pages and ranking information.

The PageRank technology currently under development is mainly used in overseas online environments where English is the primary language. In the domestic Chinese environment, a more localized hyperlink analysis technology (similar to Baidu) is used, which is already mature and has a strong technical reserve. It is expected that the search engine will be integrated into the Northern United Online network search application in three months.

The reason for rushing to develop an English version without even integrating a Chinese search engine is simple: the number of internet users in China is still too small, and the scale of the European and American internet markets is currently much larger. Many niche markets and less common languages ​​also need to be taken into account.

Currently, there are no reliable and easy-to-use web search engines in the world. The one that Jinxi Culture is currently using is barely acceptable. With the explosive growth of information processing, user access requests are also constantly increasing. Text retrieval based on the current second-generation technology, which relies heavily on manual intervention and adjustment, is becoming increasingly unable to cope with the situation.

Thus, the third-generation search engine technology—integrated analytics—came into being.

The previous generation of representatives were Google and Baidu. The second-generation engine intelligently integrates information returned by the system into a three-dimensional interface, allowing users to easily find the category area they want to obtain information.

As for the fourth-generation community search personalized services and the even more distant life ecosystem that requires the support of the Internet of Things, we can only hope to realize them when the number of Internet users expands to hundreds of millions or even billions, or even when the mobile Internet matures.

After presenting his PowerPoint presentation, a master's student under Professor Zhang Youling demonstrated the application process and results to the audience, which was quite intuitive.

"Xiao Jin, the international patent for this new technology has been granted. Where do you plan to conduct the first test?"

After thinking for a moment, Kim Sang replied:
"First, we'll launch a public beta test on the Jinxi Mall and local services platforms. Also, I'm thinking about whether to create our own information platform to improve data credibility and user engagement..."

"How to say?"

"The core underlying data of encyclopedias, for example, if a netizen searches for Jin Shang, current search engines can provide some valuable information, but it is not comprehensive or accurate enough. This is where the key use of encyclopedias comes in. They will display two pieces of public information side by side: one is the information on one of the famous generals from the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period, and the other is the introduction of a well-known businessman, young entrepreneur, poet, and songwriter..."

This is just one example; there might be other well-known people with the same name who might be of interest to some netizens, and those could be included as well.

"Wow, this is truly an all-encompassing encyclopedia! The amount of data and the workload for data entry must be enormous!"

The compilation of a world-renowned encyclopedia, from its initial drafting to each subsequent update, requires a significant amount of human and material resources and takes many years to complete.

According to Jin Shang's vision, this online encyclopedia-like information platform will have a larger data volume, and if it is done well, the expenses will be considerable.

"If we were to edit it line by line by ourselves, it would take an unknown amount of time from researching to verifying its authenticity. It's also questionable whether it's reliable. After all, no one can truly know everything; there are always blind spots in our knowledge. In such cases, we invite professionals to 'assist' in managing the encyclopedia and prevent errors. We are only responsible for the key qualification review and verification."

Just like case analyses and common prevention and treatment methods for a certain disease, isn't it obvious which is more credible: the information submitted by a stranger on the internet who doesn't know what they do in real life, or the information submitted by a professional physician who has been verified with their real name and uploaded key documents?

This greatly reduces the difficulty of obtaining professional advice. Although this will still cause some problems, it can at least guarantee the accuracy of most of the information. If it is supplemented by a complete follow-up and error correction mechanism, it can basically meet the user requirements.

(End of this chapter)