Its all a question of metier

I've had one of those moments, taking the wife to a new hair dressers, I had to sit and after giving up the pile of decidedly feminine magazines as a bad job I used my phone to crib up on a problem I'm having setting Code Collaborator up properly.

The problem aside, it's just one of those things, I needed to read the info.

About fifteen minutes into my reading and with many female voices cackling merrily away their 11 o'clock comes in with her husband in tow.  He takes the seat with me and we do the usual nod of the head and tut at the flapping the girls are all doing cooing and fawning over one another.  It really is all a bit beyond me, some form of communication is taking place, but I'm not certain what kind.

Alas, five minutes after our perfunctory nod and his going through the self same magazines he strikes up a conversation "you reading something good?"

I reply, good naturedly and we're washed over with a wave of cackling.

"Computers eh?" he says it like it's some mystery force in the universe, "our lads into them, doing his A-Levels".

I listen again, "Yeah he wants to go into using them, looking at his degree options and he got into Nottingham".

So, I do the dutiful thing, I ask what degree... I'm expecting computing, programming, systems or something...mathematical maybe physics at an outside edge.

"He's going to do English Literature"

I don't really think about it, I just ask what's the link to computers then?

"Wants to work with them".

And I can't help it, but we're in this rabbit hole and I ask "How does he jump from English Literature to working with computers?"

The guy fumbles a little here, I think this maybe the first moment he's thought about the tenuousness of the connection from A-Levels in Sociology, English Lit and Physical Education, a degree in English Literature and the wish to work in Computers.  But he gathers himself in a flash.

"He uses a right good laptop for his home work".

Game over, good night vienna, sensible has left the building.

Our conversation peters out some at this moment and I just leave him to this thoughts as my wife's done, but I can't help think about the metier here.  Computing is a goal, or the lad enjoys playing games, but he's studying completely unrelated topics, with no seeming extra curricular things, and he'll no doubt be out trying to get any computer related job, I don't know what, maybe sweeping out server rooms.  But he'll be cheaper than a qualified person in a computer academic bent.