I sincerely believe that humanities, and generic courses, will help you become a better engineer, specially if you'll end up dealing with customers or non-technical staff. General knowledge will help you understand a broader array of problems. I always think that a computer is just a very fancy hammer, and that technical skills are actually just another form of carpenting. If you don't understand the problems and the implications in real life of the people making use (and paying for) your skills, then you'll be living way below your potential.

Having a broader array of skills will help you establish a difference between
a) what a customer is asking for
b) what a customer actually wants
c) despite what it asks and wants, what he really needs

That foresight will allow you to design solutions that head towards people's needs, and trust me, that makes a difference - I feel that everyday at work, and you can ask our customers. ;)

Humanities can help you develop the sensibility to understand people's problems and guide you through a solution that will tackle their bottom problem, and not just their perception of that problem. You end up developing solutions with people in mind.

And that, is invaluable. If what you really want is to become a robot and hit away at a keyboard in a basement, then skip humanities. But never forget that whatever technical skills you develop, your final goal is to have an impact with people. It's people who'll approve your work and pay for it.

Regards,

posted July 7, 2008

I have a degree in literature and computer science and I am currently a professional software developer. My study of literature has not helped me cut better code. But I am told can, much better than most, articulate and rationalise verbally and on paper my design and implementation ideas. I have no doubt this comes from spending three years reading and writing papers. This has resulted in better, more nuanced group discussion, requirements elicitation, written specifications and finally, in better decisions and better end products. So yes, my humanities education has made me a better developer.

posted July 8, 2008

I seem to find myself in this discussion quite often as I have a Master's Degree in Latin American Literature, but have been working as a software programmer for over ten years now.

I'll lead with what seems to be the most convincing argument: the brain is like a muscle and needs routine exercise to get stronger, or at least to stay in shape. Just as your muscles in time will adapt to the same daily exercises and receive less and less benefit from that exercise, your brain starts to tune out repetitive thought processes. Giving your brain some different types of problems to think about helps it get stronger. The Humanities can offer very different problems than what your "engineering" brain is used to. Your stronger brain can then help you out more when it comes to figuring out that next algorithm.

Secondly, our work as programmers (and other engineers) requires us to be creative. Nearly every day we are faced with a problem we've never encountered before. From architecting a huge inventory system to fine tuning a long running function, the fun part of our job is making things and watching them work. The problem is… I don't think creativity can be taught...I believe it grows through inspiration, and inspiration comes from experiencing the creativity of other talented people. The Humanities have been pretty good about letting time sort out the great, creative minds of the centuries. The guided study of the Humanities (whether formal or otherwise) allows us to appreciate even more what makes these great minds so great.*

Number three...research and organization. My clients and past employers always seem to get a kick out of the fact that I studied Spanish Lit, and ended up programming computers. My usual response is, "hey, whether it's Spanish or SQL, French or C#, they are all languages, right?". Then I usually tell them that the single most valuable part of my college education was that d#@% Thesis paper I had to write. When you write a Thesis (usually over 100 pages long), you are expected to become the authority on the very narrow subject you carved out for yourself. My Thesis chair pointed me in the right direction with a couple books to read first and then said essentially "you need to become the expert now...figure out how to become an expert..." Well, I found that meant doing a lot of research. In the days before Google, I learned how to follow a trail of one author quoting another, then finding the second author and reading his or her references, and so on. This skill has helped me immensely as I now have the Internet at my finger tips and am constantly looking up how to troubleshoot problem X or how to use the methods of class Y. I've even picked up whole languages (like javascript and python) through internet research. I'm convinced that the Humanities, more than any other discipline, help you learn how to learn.

Oh, I failed to address "organization" in that last paragraph, but that paragraph was getting entirely too long (just like this response as a whole)...ANYWAY!...the Humanities demand that you write, and write a lot. I also usually end up explaining to my amused clients, bosses, and colleagues that the d#$% Thesis also forced me to learn how to organize my thoughts. To take something big and overwhelming and to break it into smaller parts, and then break those smaller parts into even smaller parts, and on down until things are manageable. And that is the same exact process I use when I'm faced with a new project. The client has a rough idea of how they want the system to behave, but no idea of how to get there. That's when I grab a pen and paper and find a quiet area to start thinking the problem through. I'm telling you, the process is nearly identical to writing a big paper, only, to me, the satisfaction of watching your program run it greater than seeing your paper published, which is why I ended up a programmer and not a professor. ;)

....

posted July 13, 2008

Nice question Sanjay. I would strongly say a yes. Literature, and humanities is liberating, and you end up appreciating the conflicts and complexities of the human mind. That does help when you are working with a group where someone's sitting in Tokyo, another in Haifa and you in India. Also, while I cannot vouch for a fact that this applies to anyone else, literature can be very relaxing after a day's work. Helps your brain to be all raring to go for the next major thing in the code.

Regards,
Arpan

posted July 16, 2008

I'd have to say I know a lot of great developers who's major were in the humanities.

posted July 4, 2008

Unless you are planning to live and work in an isolated server room on a remote island you need to be a well rounded human being.

humanities give you the chance for that, although many technical types are still clumsy about interacting with non-technical people.

posted July 5, 2008

My humanities paper was crap. Students would sleep in the class. It didn't provide any useful information. Everyone studied it for the sake of exams. The bottom line is, when someone is joining a professional course after 12+ years of general education, it should be very focused and to the point.

posted July 6, 2008

To point to one: language, linguistics
In the software world linguistic processing, guess what search engines uses a lot!

posted July 8, 2008

Sure as a rounded individual you are more valuable on insights.

Specialized education is not a mark of skill.

Some of the best Computer Scientists I have known had a degree in Music....

posted July 12, 2008

I can tell you that when I took a couple of history classes, that were mandatory during my BSc studies, we frowned upon them.
However, if you want to have conversations with other people (developers may be a separate breed here...) and get yourself promoted and/or acknowledged, you need to develop skills that are out of your comfort zone. This comes from knowledge and understanding people and communication.

This is a gap that needs to be filled, unless you are content with what you've got.

posted July 12, 2008

Humanities are the software for people. Those who wishes to use it will find it useful.

Those who ignore its relevance will be required to learn or appreciate its imporatnce later in their life/career.

It is not a specified requirement for computing, but an essential selection criteria for computer engineers. Customers and recruiters value it in a person.

posted July 13, 2008

As a person, it is great to have a broad and interesting background. Knowledge is its own reward.

As far as making a better engineer, one's knowlege of Shakespeare, Monet, and Aristotle are not very very relevant. One's knowledge of computer systems, math, and physics are critical.

Hiring managers may say that they want well-rounded candidates, but they actually hire candidates who:

* Already have the specific skills required by the position
* Can immediately contribute to organizational productivity
* Have a personality that will fit with the existing team
* Are highly, highly, highly motivated

posted July 13, 2008

Sanjay: The answer to the question would often be yes. Computers serve social functions which the humanities illustrate as previously lacking or manually performed to limited degrees.
The explanation seems to ask if learning humanities is useful as part of engineering education. This has arisen in various regional agendas over time. Engineers who lacked humanities often did not have interpersonal skills and made decisions which might have been considered "stove-piped" or only true without a limited frame of reference. Once they had to deal with large organization, government or medical issues, for instance, they were unconvincing. This also includes legislation, economics, politics, defense which overlap quality of life. It is now a fact that engineering has led to an ability to end life as we know it on the planet, so choices have a greater complexity than the way they are modelled in the texts. The question is whether a person in an intensive period of training has time for the softer sciences. Humanities may be symmetric with required cognitive modalities. Someday we may be at the point where they are useful for computers themselves. Thanks.

Links:

• http://icee2007.dei.uc.pt/proceedings/papers/144.pdf

posted July 13, 2008

This is a great question, and I really like a lot of the answers. In particular, Kenny Jacobson's answer mirrors my own experience, so I won't reiterate his points, but add some of my own.

When I was doing my undergraduate degree, I concentrated very heavily on the technical courses for my majors (chemistry and mathematics), and of course in graduate school (chemistry) didn't take courses in any other areas. And I sometimes wasn't very happy about having to take more general requirements - in particular, I thought my English classes were awful, and sociology was a real waste of time.

But after having been a professional programmer for 23 years, an awful lot of that non-technical information has been very useful. Not so much in programming directly - although the math has been essential, and the ways you learn to think as a chemist are great for solving programming problems and translating real-world problems into programming terms.

Rather, humanities and other "soft" courses apply in a broader business context. For instance, in a career as a programmer, you may be confronted with ethical questions, a need to speak other languages (I speak French and German, and am considering Italian and Korean), or deal with people from other countries. I've watched people without a humanities background just flounder in those situations.

You'll also face a lot of career decisions. Humanities can help with that, because they're about what works well, and what doesn't, for living an effective and rich human life.

If I could get in a time machine and give advice to myself in university thirty years ago, I would say, "If you want a great career as a programmer, take *more* humanities."

I also believe that we who develop software are not really engineers so much as skilled artisans, very similar to the stonemasons of the European Middle Ages who worked on the great cathedrals, and a study of those folks is very enlightening as predecessors to our profession.

posted July 14, 2008