Hey Andrew, thanks for this question! I think there's good evidence that a broad education will often mean that the individual getting it takes a little longer to get going in the work world, but has better results over the long term. Ultimately, I tend to think it depends specifically what the student is getting. In the final paper he w…
Hey Andrew, thanks for this question! I think there's good evidence that a broad education will often mean that the individual getting it takes a little longer to get going in the work world, but has better results over the long term. Ultimately, I tend to think it depends specifically what the student is getting. In the final paper he wrote, Herbert Simon (trained in poli sci, Nobel laureate in econ, one of the pioneers of both cognitive psychology and AI), argued for a kind of liberal education that created a "new Renaissance person" for a world of fast moving technology. It's in the "What is to be done?" section of this paper below. The publication requires a login, but it's free to read five articles per month: https://kenyonreview.org/piece/april-2001-creativity-in-the-arts-and-the-sciences/
I have a liberal arts degree (BA in History) from a small NE college and have had a career in teaching, tech, and land planning. And within tech, I worked on sports, medical, travel, networking, etc. I was never the expert coming in, but always rose pretty quickly by being able to learn quickly and synthesize info. Even some of our best coders or engineers came to that sideways after degrees in something else and maybe even work experience unrelated to tech. I am definitely a fan of hiring the smartest generalist you can.
I love it, and I hope you share your path widely. I think we need visible role models all over the place, showing that zig-zagging is now a normal path, not an oddity that dooms your prospects. ...And I hope you've found it interesting!
Hey Andrew, thanks for this question! I think there's good evidence that a broad education will often mean that the individual getting it takes a little longer to get going in the work world, but has better results over the long term. Ultimately, I tend to think it depends specifically what the student is getting. In the final paper he wrote, Herbert Simon (trained in poli sci, Nobel laureate in econ, one of the pioneers of both cognitive psychology and AI), argued for a kind of liberal education that created a "new Renaissance person" for a world of fast moving technology. It's in the "What is to be done?" section of this paper below. The publication requires a login, but it's free to read five articles per month: https://kenyonreview.org/piece/april-2001-creativity-in-the-arts-and-the-sciences/
I have a liberal arts degree (BA in History) from a small NE college and have had a career in teaching, tech, and land planning. And within tech, I worked on sports, medical, travel, networking, etc. I was never the expert coming in, but always rose pretty quickly by being able to learn quickly and synthesize info. Even some of our best coders or engineers came to that sideways after degrees in something else and maybe even work experience unrelated to tech. I am definitely a fan of hiring the smartest generalist you can.
I love it, and I hope you share your path widely. I think we need visible role models all over the place, showing that zig-zagging is now a normal path, not an oddity that dooms your prospects. ...And I hope you've found it interesting!