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And then they say that ideas on their own are of little worth and it is all about execution... and then they say that anybody can execute and that you are replaceable... in the end, the show is run by those with money. The rest are chess pieces. They win or lose because they are playing the game, not you. You are the pawns, the knights, the rooks, the bishops, the king, the queen. You are not moving the pieces, though. I could be wrong, but I'm not.

You underestimate the power of BS. I worked for a company that raised capital hand over fist and sucked in companies like nobody's business. We could have been doing nothing or been awesome as hell, but it didn't matter- it was all about the slick CEO selling his wares. And in the end, the company still exists even after seemingly burning up in a significant blaze of glory. Money is more important than technology. Unfortunately, many here don't realize that yet.

"I ruled out Java because it seems like every computer science major already knows it, making it more competitive."

Incorrect. There are more Java and .Net positions out there, and people hire for experience, so as soon as you have any measurable experience, you have a good chance of finding a job. Java usually pays more than PhP/Ruby/Python, and so does .Net. CS majors have an edge for a short amount of time over the long haul of a developer's career. Not having a CS/MS CS/PhD CS can get in the way of getting some jobs, but apply to them anyway. Experience usually counts more than education, except for places like Google that have insane interviews.

If you want job security and to be able to work anywhere, go Java and/or .Net. As part of Java and learning the JVM, you have a good base for JRuby, Android (like a specialized Java subset), Groovy/Grails (Java-based), Scala (runs on JVM), and Clojure (runs of JVM).

I started off thinking this was going to be an intelligent article. But this line pretty much sums up all of it:

"I have a friend who went to an Ivy League college after graduating from a typically mediocre public high school. One of the values of going to such a school, she once said, is that it teaches you to relate to stupid people."

That could have been the whole article.