Ignore the science!   This week we shared the opinion of an anonymous poster that computer science degrees should be ignored. The writer argued not that pursuing a computer science degree is a misguided effort; rather that it may not be necessary for the problems most companies need to solve.  It was a smash hit with the readers of CIO.com, causing much debate, some strong feelings, and posing difficult questions. And that is where Smart Answers comes in.   One question asked by many of our readers regarded the relative merits of earning a degree vs on the job training and certification. Smart Answers – channeling decades of human reporting and insights – is of the opinion that employers are increasingly valuing proven skills and experience alongside, or sometimes instead of, formal degrees for IT positions. That although executive roles may still require a degree, this is changing.   It’s a more nuanced argument than that, of course. And Smart Answers offers all sides.    Find out: Are industry certifications more valued than degrees for IT jobs?  Back from the cloud  The rapid rise of AI is forcing organizations to reconsider their infrastructure. Its need for specialized compute, from GPUs to high-bandwidth networking and massive storage, has challenged the economics that justified mass migration to the cloud. Whisper it (or write about it as we did this week): some organizations are quietly moving off the  cloud.  It’s a trend, then, but is it significant? InfoWorld readers hit Smart Anwers to find out. Our Chatbot parses human reporting and insights and says that multiple surveys indicate a significant percentage of companies plan to repatriate cloud resources. Indeed, IDC’s June 2024 survey found that approximately 80% of IT decision-makers anticipated some level of repatriation of compute and storage resources within the next year. That feels significant.  Find out: What percentage of companies expect to repatriate cloud resources?  Python vs Rust Template strings, deferred annotations, better error messages, and a new debugger interface are among the goodies in Python 3.14. Now in beta. This week we outlined for the readers of InfoWorld all of the best new features and fixes in Python 3.14.   Detailed and expert articles like this one always attract a huge audience on InfoWorld, largely due to the popularity of Python. But why is that the case? Why is Python so popular? Readers asked Smart Answers to compare Python to Rust and other compiler languages.   The answer? Python may not be the fastest, but it is the easiest to use and that goes a long way.  Find out: How does Python’s performance compare to compiled languages like Rust?  About Smart Answers  Smart Answers is an AI-based chatbot tool designed to help you discover content, answer questions, and go deep on the topics that matter to you. Each week we send you the three most popular questions asked by our readers, and the answers Smart Answers provides.   Developed in partnership with Miso.ai, Smart Answers draws only on editorial content from our network of trusted media brands—CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World—and was trained on questions that a savvy enterprise IT audience would ask. The result is a fast, efficient way for you to get more value from our content.