There's sometimes a lot of chatter here on HN about a liberal arts education being worthless. I have to wonder if more tech employees had taken classes in ethics, philosophy, and other "soft" subjects, if people in the industry would have a better capacity to make decisions that get their companies in trouble less often. Or at least be able to explain to their superiors why a particular business decision is bad.
>> There's sometimes a lot of chatter here on HN about a liberal arts education being worthless. Plenty of people here will argue that you shouldn't take out $80k in student loans to get a liberal arts degree. Worthelss in a ROI sense But there are a large amount of people here with pretty liberal views. So they certain don't disagree with the viewpoint.
When I was looking at colleges, I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. In high school, I really hated science and math classes. Years later I realized that I actually didn't but the single math teacher I had for four years of high school (it was a small school, I just had bad luck with what teachers were assigned to the classes I took). If I had gone to college with the goal of a career that I thought I would have been suited for, I probably would be doing something much different.
I picked a school that offered me the opportunity to study a broad range of topics and had a curriculum based in seminars & discussion. Rather than learning technical subject or a trade, I learned how to accomplish tasks independently. What I feel I got were the skills to teach myself anything. Sure I'd need to learn harder career based skills, but I knew how to best teach myself something IMO, that's no different than a career paths that requires additional schooling to get a job. Looking back, I think it's ridiculous that we ask 16-18 year olds to make decisions about their careers.