Off-topic: I majored in history for my BA. For the first year out of college, I struggled to find work, and was worried that I had made a terrible choice. 8 yea

Off-topic: I majored in history for my BA. For the first year out of college, I struggled to find work, and was worried that I had made a terrible choice. 8 years on, after supplementing my studies with essentially an Associate’s in CS, my view has changed significantly. Here are the most useful skills that I’ve gained from my study of history: * There’s a phrase among historians that writing history is like drinking in an oceanful of information and pissing out a cup. As a technical writer, this is obviously highly relevant to my work. But I’d venture that this skill will resonate with any “knowledge worker.” * Towards the end of the major you start thinking about historiography, which is the study of writing history. You question what kinds of primary sources writers are basing their arguments on, and what kinds of biases (or “perspectives” to use a more neutral term) these writers are bringing to their analyses. A relevant skill in this age of “fake news.” * History professors place a lot of value on concise writing. It’s obvious to me now why that would be the case, but at the time I didn’t make the connection. * I went into the major with a vague desire to learn more about how society works. In that regard the field definitely does not disappoint. I enjoyed how open-ended the field of inquiry was. Yet at the same time you have to stay somewhat grounded in reality. I.e. when you write about a topic you have to provide primary sources that validate your argument. Anyways, I don’t have any major agenda for writing all of this, other than the fact that it’s Saturday morning and I’m hyped on coffee and I figured someone might enjoy considering how studying history is still relevant to the modern workforce.