Why tech needs the humanities | Eric Berridge

If you want to build a team of innovative problem-solvers, you should value the humanities just as much as the sciences, says entrepreneur Eric Berridge. He shares why tech companies should look beyond STEM graduates for new hires — and how people with backgrounds in the arts and humanities can bring creativity and insight to technical workplaces.

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28 Comments on Why tech needs the humanities | Eric Berridge

  1. Software development businesses are so fixated on new tech, being ‘creative’ and ‘awesome’ that they often forget who pays the bills.

    The lack of customer focus is what kills those small businesses that start off well because once the customer or consumer interaction is lost, you’re not making software or solutions for them any more – you’re making it for you and you’re probably going to get it wrong.

  2. What I’ve been saying for years… No sense in being so good at engineering and prideful about it if you can’t think and all you engineer is bullshit or whatever you’re told to do. The current system only encourages hard working mindless tools of people rather than those who can actually see the forest for the trees and do something.

  3. What’s more important, the data or the jazz? Sure, sure, ‘Information should be free’ and all that- but anyone can set information free. The jazz is in how you do it, what you do it to, and in almost getting caught without getting caught. The data is 1’s and 0’s. Life is the jazz.
    ~ Sinder Roze

  4. Biology can tell you how to edit genetic information. Physics tells you how to harness nuclear power. Chemistry tells you how to bend materials to your will. Engineering tells you how to build the machines that do that.
    Humanities? They tell you how to apply it ethically and effectively.

  5. He should call google, facebook etc asap and tell them to replace the computer engineers with musicians and bartenders.

  6. There could be a role for the humanities in technology, but don’t think that nowadays they are taught critical thinking, which is a skill. They are taught critical thought which – in spite what the name might suggest – is a political dogma.
    There is no flexibility of thought there to be found.

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