Want Innovative Thinking? Hire from the Humanities

If I remember correctly, I believe IBM used to apply this reasoning back in the 1980s.<p>Having done humanities subjects as well as CS, I would say that the workload was quite potentially similar in difficulty and sophistication and would likely stand people in good stead, as the article says... IF you did the readings for the humanities courses, which quite a number of people doing a Bachelor of Arts really obviously didn't. It was obvious you could skate by with the equivalent of a B- or C+ while doing 15 hours a week total work, which usually inspired great quantities of rage and disdain from the engineering/science students.

Here's something I learnt from the humanities: distinguishing between <i>necessary</i> and <i>sufficient</i> causes of events.<p>Steve Jobs taking a calligraphy class was <i>necessary</i>, but not <i>sufficient</i>, to create the Macintosh. He still needed a team of those tedious non-humanities folks -- not least of whom was Woz -- for Apple to succeed.<p>Bill Gates and Zuckerberg had educations rich in the humanities. But that was not enough: they also had a deep background in actual programming.<p>The humanities <i>by themselves</i> are not enough. You need the rubber as well as the road.