Paul CantrellOct 19, 2024

I’m a software developer with a bunch of industry experience. I’m also a comp sci professor, and whenever a CS alum working in industry comes to talk to the students, I always like to ask, “What do you wish you’d taken more of in college?”

Almost without exception, they answer, “Writing.”

One of them said, “I do more writing at Google now than I did when I was in college.”

I am therefore begging, begging you to listen to @stephstephking: https://mstdn.social/@stephstephking/113336270193370876

Stephanie King (@[email protected])

It's bumming me out to see so many universities forcing their English departments to put on a "English Majors Are Useful Too" promotional campaign to justify their existence when my experience out on the job market right now is HOT DAMN THIS ONE CAN WRITE A SENTENCE

Mastodon 🐘
Show threadJosh Oct 19, 2024

@inthehands @stephstephking @skinnylatte as a CS major and software developer, I *always* advise people to put at least some of their time into the humanities. You don’t need a bachelor’s degree to learn to program, but a strong liberal arts foundation will benefit you across all aspects of your career.

Edit: and life, which, honestly, is more important. My life is better for having studied things beyond the skills I put on my resume.

Show threadTerryBOct 20, 2024
@josh0 @inthehands @stephstephking @skinnylatte Hmm. What Americans call "Liberal Arts" seems to encompass the subjects that develop thinking skills, analysis and fact checking. If I've understood right.
I'm not sure the title does it any favours- making rigorous study sound sort of wishy washy.
Show threadJosh Oct 20, 2024
@terryb @inthehands @stephstephking @skinnylatte that sounds about right. I’m not entirely sure of the etymology of the term, but I suspect it’s fairly archaic and related to the history of higher education as a purely gentleman’s pursuit.
Show threadBill RickerOct 20, 2024
@josh0 @terryb @inthehands @stephstephking @skinnylatte
Yes, "Liberal Arts" dates to European medieval universities, which mostly trained Catholic clergy, but some gentlemen escaped with an education without taking vows. The word "Trivia" refers to the division of the secular portion of the curriculum, the 7 Liberal Arts, to introductory Trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric) and advanced Quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrivium
Quadrivium - Wikipedia

Show threadBill Ricker

@josh0 @terryb @inthehands @stephstephking @skinnylatte
Unenumerated, outside of the Liberal Arts, were the prerequisites of Greek & Latin Classical languages (& history & literature), and potential subsequent professional studies of law, medicine, or theology.

And yes, these are the Thinking Skills, applicable in all walks of life.

Oct 20, 2024 at 4:18pmWeb