A STEM education is essential for most jobs in 2023.
But if you know only STEM you will never be more than a worker drone. To be in management you need to understand people. History, literature, and art are essential for that.
But if you know only STEM you will never be more than a worker drone. To be in management you need to understand people. History, literature, and art are essential for that.
I had a friend back in the 1980s who worked as a recruiter for IBM in the Northeast. One of his favorite places to recruit was Union College in Schenectady, NY, because the STEM program is integrated into a liberal arts education, and as a result, STEM majors were better prepared to communicate their knowledge both verbally and in writing.
> But if you know only STEM you will never be more than a worker drone. <
I’m a STEM guy, and I agree. That’s why the old “distribution of studies” idea was so good. I majored in chemistry. But I was forced to take credits in the humanities. I’m better off for it.
The problem, of course, is with majoring in the humanities. I saw college is a trade school. Go there to learn a way to make a living. You can’t make much of a living as a History of Ancient Greece major.
I disagree what’s your position regarding history, literature and art being “essential” to leadership.
Some of the most successful leaders I know or know of couldn’t tell you one line from a Shakespeare play or what The Battle of Thermopylae was all about. They do have a deep understanding of what motivates humans to get up everyday and go back into battle with life(face it that’s what life is to most people, the battle). They do not lecture or pontificate; they teach, motivate and inspire.