4 ms·

I agree. I studied literature in college (coincidentally, my thesis was on Woolf), and am currently working in a technical role at a startup. I've found incred

I agree. I studied literature in college (coincidentally, my thesis was on Woolf), and am currently working in a technical role at a startup. I've found incredible value from studying the humanities, especially literature. Some of the courses I took in college completely changed the way I view and understand the world. Literature has been a constant source of inspiration for me, and without doubt has made me a more whole, critical, and creative person--something that has had a marked effect on my career in startups (Caveat: It helps having grown up coding alongside this, I suppose). With that said, I found the author's examples to be terribly reductive. Studying liberal arts is not going to make you better at finding memory leaks or optimizing algorithms. Exposure to the humanities will, however, make you a more well-rounded human being and help you to contextualize and understand big-picture problems (vision, positioning, identity...the WHY behind the product) from a different (and, of course, not always better!) perspective than might typically be found at a company filled exclusively with STEM graduates. I agree with the headline and the spirit of the article, but it's too bad the author's defense of it doesn't stack up.

foxhedgehog 10y ago
As another literature major who now works in a technical role, I can't help but notice that this comment and the one above it are among the best-written in this thread, nor can I forget all of the general panic that went into my nomination anytime that college programming groups had to produce something written along with our code. I smirk somewhat at the idea that Virginia Woolf has much to teach you about clean code. I do, however, think that writing is a very general-purpose cognitive skill, and that exposure to books like Mrs. Dalloway (and their mechanics) are generally good for your brain.

foxhedgehog 10y ago

As another literature major who now works in a technical role, I can't help but notice that this comment and the one above it are among the best-written in this thread, nor can I forget all of the general panic that went into my nomination anytime that college programming groups had to produce something written along with our code. I smirk somewhat at the idea that Virginia Woolf has much to teach you about clean code. I do, however, think that writing is a very general-purpose cognitive skill, and that exposure to books like Mrs. Dalloway (and their mechanics) are generally good for your brain.