This advice is ridiculous. First, I don't believe the intent of most Ph.D programs is even to create "a rounded, open, and engaged intellectual citizen". I kn

This advice is ridiculous. First, I don't believe the intent of most Ph.D programs is even to create "a rounded, open, and engaged intellectual citizen". I know quite a few people with doctorate degrees, and while most were quite happy with their educational experience, I doubt they would describe it as he frames it. Second, most of the great programmers I know are deeply interested in the humanities and tend to be quite well read in many disciplines. They just prefer to spend their creative energies and career creating software. Furthermore, I am highly skeptical of the idea that you need a Ph.D to have a meaningful understanding of the humanities. Despite his assertions about the "thought leaders", it seems to me that those who have made the most progress on the big questions in the last 100+ years did so through science and technology, not through the humanities.