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Perhaps programmers should learn something of the humanities. Literature, history, philosophy, etc. They are not only very interesting in their own right, kno

by rmah 16y ago

Perhaps programmers should learn something of the humanities. Literature, history, philosophy, etc. They are not only very interesting in their own right, knowing a bit about them can make you more fun at parties!

rsayers 16y ago
Agreed. When I finally went to college after years of programming, I picked religion as my major. It's a great jack of all trades major in humanities. You get history, language, philosophy, and more. I even got a trip to India out of it. After years of programming I felt I would gain little by studying CS. Sure I would learn, but only after going though classes that would teach me nothing or little at all in order to get to the good stuff. If I was going to throw down the money for a degree I wanted to learn something new. I eventually went for the low hanging fruit and switched to IT with a software emphasis at a school where I could graduate much faster, this was more for fiscal reasons though. I feel what I picked up in my brief time as a religion major was extremely valuable and I came out with a lot of knowledge and better understanding of a lot that goes on in the world.
michaelcampbell 16y ago
I was required to take at least the basic/beginning class of every one of those disciplines. Can people actually graduate with an (equivalent of the US) 4 year degree these days not having done so?
wil2k 16y ago
There are universities which really combine programming with the humanities in an integrated study. One that comes to mind is the University of Groningen in The Netherlands with the Information Science study they're offering: "Information science is the branch of science that deals with the storage, processing and analysis of large amounts of data. The study of Information Science in Groningen focuses on information relevant to Arts: text, historical data and communication data. During your studies you deal for instance with these questions: * Can a computer perform automatic translation based on a large collection of examples? * What is the best way to store historical data in a database? * What are good ways for people to communicate with computers? The study of Information Science in Groningen deals with theory, experiment and application." http://www.rug.nl/let/onderwijs/afdelingen/informatiekunde/index http://www.rug.nl/let/onderwijs/afdelingen/informatiekunde/i... Personally I think it's very good that there are studies which don't look at IT/programming in 'just' (not meant negatively, just not able to find a better word at the moment!) in the Computer Science way. There are of course also studies which combine IT and Business/MBA-like courses. Good, broadly developed backgrounds to have when going job-hunting IMHO. :)

by rmah 16y ago

rsayers 16y ago

Agreed. When I finally went to college after years of programming, I picked religion as my major. It's a great jack of all trades major in humanities. You get history, language, philosophy, and more. I even got a trip to India out of it. After years of programming I felt I would gain little by studying CS. Sure I would learn, but only after going though classes that would teach me nothing or little at all in order to get to the good stuff. If I was going to throw down the money for a degree I wanted to learn something new. I eventually went for the low hanging fruit and switched to IT with a software emphasis at a school where I could graduate much faster, this was more for fiscal reasons though. I feel what I picked up in my brief time as a religion major was extremely valuable and I came out with a lot of knowledge and better understanding of a lot that goes on in the world.

michaelcampbell 16y ago

I was required to take at least the basic/beginning class of every one of those disciplines. Can people actually graduate with an (equivalent of the US) 4 year degree these days not having done so?

wil2k 16y ago

There are universities which really combine programming with the humanities in an integrated study. One that comes to mind is the University of Groningen in The Netherlands with the Information Science study they're offering: "Information science is the branch of science that deals with the storage, processing and analysis of large amounts of data. The study of Information Science in Groningen focuses on information relevant to Arts: text, historical data and communication data. During your studies you deal for instance with these questions: * Can a computer perform automatic translation based on a large collection of examples? * What is the best way to store historical data in a database? * What are good ways for people to communicate with computers? The study of Information Science in Groningen deals with theory, experiment and application." http://www.rug.nl/let/onderwijs/afdelingen/informatiekunde/index http://www.rug.nl/let/onderwijs/afdelingen/informatiekunde/i... Personally I think it's very good that there are studies which don't look at IT/programming in 'just' (not meant negatively, just not able to find a better word at the moment!) in the Computer Science way. There are of course also studies which combine IT and Business/MBA-like courses. Good, broadly developed backgrounds to have when going job-hunting IMHO. :)