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I disagree. Look at the post-college careers of General Studies majors compared to any specialized major. Our current society rewards specialization and niching

I disagree. Look at the post-college careers of General Studies majors compared to any specialized major. Our current society rewards specialization and niching. Dabbling is low-risk/low-reward; specialization is high-risk/high-reward.

Jtsummers 7y ago
General Studies major is the one people take when they hopped between other majors for too long. Often never achieving any real depth beyond sophomore level in any subject. They're dabblers, not generalists. Generalists actually achieve competency in several fields. Dabblers don't.
throwayEngineer 7y ago
Academia is not the real world, and they always seem to be struggling to be Useful. A generalist who can program, market, and run a business is likely going to be better at making good decisions over someone with only 1 of those skills. Forget about Academia for a moment.
- claudiulodro 7y ago
  Decisions about what? The low-hanging-fruit software companies have already been built; the most successful new software companies are all about a specific vertical, and this requires specialization. Trivially, yes it would be best to be 100% expert in programming, 100% expert in marketing, 100% expert in business, and 100% expert in whatever the business domain is, but that isn't feasible. That's why most new start ups have a founding team, not a founding superperson.
  - goobynight 7y ago
    I'm not buying it. What companies are you thinking of? I feel like I will either find them seeking out a generalist for some subset of their workload or a company that is just as young and valuable that hires massive numbers of generalists (e.g. Uber, Postmates/Doordash, WeWork)
goobynight 7y ago
A general studies major doesn't ascertain that you have a basic competency in any desirable skill. The kind of generalists we are talking about actually have the competency to at least make MVP quality work in a few areas.

Jtsummers 7y ago

General Studies major is the one people take when they hopped between other majors for too long. Often never achieving any real depth beyond sophomore level in any subject. They're dabblers, not generalists. Generalists actually achieve competency in several fields. Dabblers don't.

throwayEngineer 7y ago

Academia is not the real world, and they always seem to be struggling to be Useful. A generalist who can program, market, and run a business is likely going to be better at making good decisions over someone with only 1 of those skills. Forget about Academia for a moment.

claudiulodro 7y ago
Decisions about what? The low-hanging-fruit software companies have already been built; the most successful new software companies are all about a specific vertical, and this requires specialization. Trivially, yes it would be best to be 100% expert in programming, 100% expert in marketing, 100% expert in business, and 100% expert in whatever the business domain is, but that isn't feasible. That's why most new start ups have a founding team, not a founding superperson.
- goobynight 7y ago
  I'm not buying it. What companies are you thinking of? I feel like I will either find them seeking out a generalist for some subset of their workload or a company that is just as young and valuable that hires massive numbers of generalists (e.g. Uber, Postmates/Doordash, WeWork)

goobynight 7y ago

A general studies major doesn't ascertain that you have a basic competency in any desirable skill. The kind of generalists we are talking about actually have the competency to at least make MVP quality work in a few areas.