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Okay, I'm officially annoyed. Joe Spolsky made a blog post similar to this and also stated "Don't blow off your non-CS classes". He, and to a lesser extent thi

Okay, I'm officially annoyed. Joe Spolsky made a blog post similar to this and also stated "Don't blow off your non-CS classes". He, and to a lesser extent this article, basically summed it up as "it will help you learn to do boring stuff well". Are we CS majors really such mindless brutes that topics such as history, philosophy, religion, literature, etc., are automatically snore-fests that we complete just to make good grades? I'm just really confused how these people can have a seemingly complete lack of interest in the humanities.

Dilpil 18y ago
As someone who is utterly convinced of the worthlessness of religious studies, literature studies, philosophy, ect, let me attempt to answer your question. CS is a topic where every question has an answer. We may not know it, but it either exists or is provably non existent. Furthermore, CS is a field which advances- and when CS advances, life often improves for millions of people. Lastly, taking CS and math classes means learning new things. I know things I did not know at the beginning of the semester about the nature of information. In humanities, while the questions are interesting, they have no answers. Furthermore, the study of humanities does not advance, the fashions and trends simply change. It is also entirely possible to go to a humanities lecture and learn absolutely nothing new. It is not the CS majors who are brutes. We are the scholars, the ones responsible for advancing human civilization. Studying CS requires constant intellectual growth and expansion as you enable your brain to understand more and more complex topics. Taking humanities courses is a major distraction from this pursuit. I have never been exposed to an idea in a humanities class that I could not have understood as a 15 year old. I have never seen irrefutable proof of something I was previously convinced was false in a humanities class. This is why I have a complete lack of interest in humanities.
- netcan 18y ago
  Stay well away from Zen.
- nihilocrat 18y ago
  I can fully understand that; you're just missing the point. You're not looking for hard answers in the humanities, while accepting the fact that there's worth in things other than hard answers. History courses can do a lot to improve your ability to recognize patterns in past events or behavior. It also imparts a great deal of knowledge that requires intellectual growth and expansion. Philosophy courses can help you argue a point better, because it's so easy for someone to question your assumptions since everything is so wishy-washy and up in the air and you can't really assume anything. It's really quite frustrating, I can understand how this field feels circuitous and useless. Religious studies help you understand religious people a little better, and see some worth in some forms of religion. Most of all, it will hopefully help you understand your own life better. Most atheists seem to think religious people are categorically stupid, and while there are plenty of stupid religious people around, there are a good deal of pretty wise religious people. Foreign language courses, coupled with some sort of interaction with natives, help you to see the world in other peoples' eyes in a much more direct way than monolingual study. Also, all of these studies can be just plain fun, and tons more fascinating than a CS lecture about problems people have solved ages ago. Not everything has to be strictly utilitarian. I can see how it's really hard to see how humanities advance anything, if you are so short-sighted that material and technological progress is the only measure of human worth. Sometimes it's important for people to be educated in the human condition, both for their worth and for others.
  - Dilpil 18y ago
    Philosophy courses can help you argue a point better- that is, the logic side of philosophy. And if your going to take a class like this, you might as well take a full blown logic class, which is in essence a math class. Religious studies could help you understand religious people better. Psychology however, would be a far more direct way to understand religious people, as well as many other phenomenons of the human mind. As for the courses being more fun than CS, I would certainly disagree. Of course, this is entirely subjective- and I can see why someone who disagrees with that would choose CS. I cannot however, understand why someone who finds CS boring would major in it.
    - 18y ago
- tsally 18y ago
  "In humanities, while the questions are interesting, they have no answers." Certainly not true for all humanities, and only somewhat true for a few. "Furthermore, the study of humanities does not advance, the fashions and trends simply change." That's ridiculous, and more importantly, unsubstantiated. "I have never been exposed to an idea in a humanities class that I could not have understood as a 15 year old." It's unfortunate that you've never been taught a proper humanities class. Seems like you are letting poor teachers get in the way of valuable subjects. "Studying CS requires constant intellectual growth and expansion as you enable your brain to understand more and more complex topics." So do the humanities. Indeed, it appears that a lack of intellectual growth on your part is preventing you from gaining value out of the humanities. Just because it is a different type of growth than what is required for Computer Science doesn't mean it's not intellectual. For reference, I'm a Computer Science major with an English minor.

Dilpil 18y ago

As someone who is utterly convinced of the worthlessness of religious studies, literature studies, philosophy, ect, let me attempt to answer your question. CS is a topic where every question has an answer. We may not know it, but it either exists or is provably non existent. Furthermore, CS is a field which advances- and when CS advances, life often improves for millions of people. Lastly, taking CS and math classes means learning new things. I know things I did not know at the beginning of the semester about the nature of information. In humanities, while the questions are interesting, they have no answers. Furthermore, the study of humanities does not advance, the fashions and trends simply change. It is also entirely possible to go to a humanities lecture and learn absolutely nothing new. It is not the CS majors who are brutes. We are the scholars, the ones responsible for advancing human civilization. Studying CS requires constant intellectual growth and expansion as you enable your brain to understand more and more complex topics. Taking humanities courses is a major distraction from this pursuit. I have never been exposed to an idea in a humanities class that I could not have understood as a 15 year old. I have never seen irrefutable proof of something I was previously convinced was false in a humanities class. This is why I have a complete lack of interest in humanities.

netcan 18y ago
Stay well away from Zen.
nihilocrat 18y ago
I can fully understand that; you're just missing the point. You're not looking for hard answers in the humanities, while accepting the fact that there's worth in things other than hard answers. History courses can do a lot to improve your ability to recognize patterns in past events or behavior. It also imparts a great deal of knowledge that requires intellectual growth and expansion. Philosophy courses can help you argue a point better, because it's so easy for someone to question your assumptions since everything is so wishy-washy and up in the air and you can't really assume anything. It's really quite frustrating, I can understand how this field feels circuitous and useless. Religious studies help you understand religious people a little better, and see some worth in some forms of religion. Most of all, it will hopefully help you understand your own life better. Most atheists seem to think religious people are categorically stupid, and while there are plenty of stupid religious people around, there are a good deal of pretty wise religious people. Foreign language courses, coupled with some sort of interaction with natives, help you to see the world in other peoples' eyes in a much more direct way than monolingual study. Also, all of these studies can be just plain fun, and tons more fascinating than a CS lecture about problems people have solved ages ago. Not everything has to be strictly utilitarian. I can see how it's really hard to see how humanities advance anything, if you are so short-sighted that material and technological progress is the only measure of human worth. Sometimes it's important for people to be educated in the human condition, both for their worth and for others.
- Dilpil 18y ago
  Philosophy courses can help you argue a point better- that is, the logic side of philosophy. And if your going to take a class like this, you might as well take a full blown logic class, which is in essence a math class. Religious studies could help you understand religious people better. Psychology however, would be a far more direct way to understand religious people, as well as many other phenomenons of the human mind. As for the courses being more fun than CS, I would certainly disagree. Of course, this is entirely subjective- and I can see why someone who disagrees with that would choose CS. I cannot however, understand why someone who finds CS boring would major in it.
  - 18y ago
tsally 18y ago
"In humanities, while the questions are interesting, they have no answers." Certainly not true for all humanities, and only somewhat true for a few. "Furthermore, the study of humanities does not advance, the fashions and trends simply change." That's ridiculous, and more importantly, unsubstantiated. "I have never been exposed to an idea in a humanities class that I could not have understood as a 15 year old." It's unfortunate that you've never been taught a proper humanities class. Seems like you are letting poor teachers get in the way of valuable subjects. "Studying CS requires constant intellectual growth and expansion as you enable your brain to understand more and more complex topics." So do the humanities. Indeed, it appears that a lack of intellectual growth on your part is preventing you from gaining value out of the humanities. Just because it is a different type of growth than what is required for Computer Science doesn't mean it's not intellectual. For reference, I'm a Computer Science major with an English minor.