I wasted four years of my life – don't make the same mistake

Perfectly put. I do love liberal arts a great deal. I try my best to be able to learn about those whenever I happen to get some free time, but even if I had to do it all over again, I might not chose it as my degree and stick to engineering.

I agree with this comment, although it might not appear that I do from the other remark I made in this thread.

Spending four years supporting myself playing poker for just-under-minimum-wage on average was a waste of time in terms of career/hard skills, but gave me an instinctive grasp of game theory, excellent budgeting skills, improved my self-confidence and was generally a lot of fun. I don't know if I'd be where I am now without those four wasted years.

EDIT: Oh! I remember the salient point I was going to make - I doubt she'd be earning around £250+ from a Guardian article without that liberal arts degree!

> John A. McDougall, M.D., is an American Irish physician and author whose philosophy is that degenerative disease can be prevented and treated with a low-fat, whole foods, plant-based/vegan diet – especially one based on starches such as potatoes, rice, and corn – which excludes all animal foods and added vegetable oils.

Do you think the guy might have a horse in this race?

FTA:

> My teachers recommended that I study economics and statistics as my A-level subjects, but I had my mind set on a life fulfilled by the arts.

And in the next paragraph:

> Without realising it, I was a victim of a gender stereotype reinforced since birth, that men do science and maths and women do arts or languages.

Society was encouraging her to go into the sciences. Or was it that she was trapped by a "gender stereotype"?

She doesn't see the contradiction between the two statements.

She could have accepted personal responsibility, and said "I screwed up. I didn't look into the job prospects, or the salaries. I just had a romantic notion and went with it, against the advice of people who knew better."

> Now I have a five-year-old daughter. I don't want her to blindly follow gender roles the way I did.

Is she an adult, or an automaton with no free will?

> I want her to embrace the fact that a science or technical degree will not limit her creativity but expand it and broaden her horizons far more than my arts background could

i.e. "I was bigoted against STEM degress, but now I realize that they're useful, too".

This article is interesting. Not for it's promotion of STEM degrees. But for it's shameless bigotry, and total denial of personal responsibility.