Liberal arts majors are more creative, adaptable and better at learning, says Scott Hartley in his book The Fuzzy And The Techie. The venture capitalist and tech writer divides the world into “fuzzies”—liberal arts majors—and “techies”—science and technology students—making a case for why the former will rule the digital world in times to come. Here are three takeaways.
Building better products: The study of psychology can help in creating new products and services. For instance, dating app Bumble employs sociologist Jessica Carbino to understand patterns in matching.
Ethical decisions: Dealing with issues like identity, privacy and regulation requires a philosophical and humanistic perspective. Here is where liberal arts majors, with their knowledge of classical philosophy, ethics and history, can bring in a better perspective.
For instance, anthropologist Melissa Cefkin works at Nissan on the driverless car project. She observes patterns in human behaviour which help program machines like self-driving cars to deal with man-machine interactions.
Data interpretation: The qualitative insights of psychology and political science can be combined effectively with quantitative methods of analysis, says Hartley. He cites the example of entrepreneur Leslie Bradshaw—named by the Fast Company magazine in its 2016 list of the 100 most creative people in business—who studied gender, economics, anthropology and Latin.
The Fuzzy And The Techie: By Scott Hartley, Penguin 290 pages, Rs599.
—Sonya Dutta Choudhury