“Technology alone is not enough—it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our heart sing.” Who said this these uplifting words that speak directly to the souls of English majors everywhere? Steve Jobs. That’s right, Steve Jobs of Apple, Steve Jobs of iPods and apps. Steve Jobs, one of the kings of technology in our day and age said that liberal arts and humanities blended with technology “makes our heart sing.” My summation: Steve Jobs wants you to major in English!
A recent article in The Wall Street Journal confirms these sentiments. In his article “How to Avoid a Bonfire of the Humanities,” Michael S. Malone begins by acknowledging the advantages of the sciences in any battle with the humanities. He describes the content in terms of a poker game where Science raises the stakes, stating, “I see your Jane Austen monographs and deconstructions of ‘The Tempest’ and raise you stem-cell research and the iPhone’—and then pockets all of the chips on the table.” The major difference between success in the field of science and success in literature, says Malone, is money, for scientific products (such as the newest iPod Nano) are sold and gobbled up by the general population in much greater numbers than, say, the newest Jeffrey Eugenides novel.
But have faith, for Malone’s presumptions were completely reversed after a discussion with tech savvy Santosh Jayaram (of Google, Twitter, and Dabble). Jayaram told Malone that English majors and other students of the humanities “are exactly the people I am looking for.” His reasoning: these days, invention is easy due to accessible technology. What a company needs are fantastic storytellers in order to convince people that they want a product. Jayaram says that English majors are valuable because they are able to tell stories “that are so vivid that your potential stakeholders imagine [the potential product] already exists and is already part of their daily lives.” This then convinces them to make the potential project into a reality, and all because the engineers and scientists hired a good storyteller.
Read the full article here.