The Hidden Advantage of Studying “Useless” Degrees

I am one of those people who chose those so called unemployable degree. The degree that I chose was considered impractical and the highest level can someone make it in life is by becoming an English professor. So, naturally for an ambitious person, that doesn't sound too sexy. Many statistics throughout the world also noted that having an English degree are less likely to put you in the 1% and even less if you have other seemingly impractical major such as creative writing, history and even philosophy.

That being said, those aren't necessary the major that a teacher would suggest to their students if money is their orientation. They'll tell you to take something more practical and major with more job opportunities. But it remains quite a curiosity to me when I learned that some billionaires have either Humanities or Social Science Major. And in that same post, you can see from the graphic presented, more than 80 of them has an MBA. I know, some are dropouts but they get the headlines because people get curious to the extreme and hoping that they can do the same. Well, not really. There are many nuances to these dropouts who made it in life and even poor people who made it in life. It is rare to find the combination of a poor parents ( background ) and dropout that truly made it in life. Anyhow, after entering a more technical academic environment, I began to understand something I wished I truly understand 13 years ago or more.

It took about 13 years to realize what I am about to share but first, I have to say that Business is about people. (Something I learned from my encounter with successful entrepreneurs) which will give us the prelude to what I am about to share.

My thoughts was first recorded this morning after I attended a class on Method of Analysis. It was then sparks me a word "framework" and ways of thinking. Especially when the topic was mixture of how to pick the right location for your next factory?

I come with the assumption that we all need money. And actually to make considerable amount of money in whatever field you're in, we have to understand what people want, need, and fear and their source of motivation, including how people make decision. I didn't struggle at all understanding the class because indirectly, through my English degree, I learned all of that. When I read and analyze literature, it helps me with learning to look for pattern, understand context and why people behave they way they do. So, spend quite some years it in and you'll develop a certain framework. The thing is with an English degree, we were mostly focused on the human. We see human as human not just number in spreadsheet or data. But in engineering and econ, we see them as numerical data.

Throughout the class, I noticed different ways of people solving problems. Some of my peers come from various background but mostly engineering. They approach by listing the components, applying methods and evaluate the result while for me, I question how the problem was defined and then how history and society intertwine which then help shaped the situation. Now, I learn to see both human as human but also numerical data on a pretty spreadsheet. But most importantly, I start seeing it in less isolated ways of solving a problem.

One of the people I used to closely examine was Elon Musk. He comes from a combination of STEM and Social Science Major ( Physics & Econ). That combinations build interesting framework in the way he thinks. He doesn't come from a rigid software engineering background or computer science but his physics degree gave him the foundation. Then, the social sciences (Econ) helps him understand people.

What's amazing nowadays is that perhaps you don't have to go to university anymore to learn ( depending on your learning style, you can opt for a degree). And I can say that if you are still in 20's major in both. Have a STEM background and MBA, or a combination between the two even in the age of AI. And throughout my classes recently, I finally learned more on how to code, how to build rather than just think and analyzing it. For me, switching to engineering really helps with putting things into practice. As opposed to in the past when I was just a literature student and I think a lot. These days, I build more than I think.

That was the reflection for the day. Something I wished I knew sooner😄

	𝘊𝘦𝘮𝘺 (𝘰𝘳 𝘔𝘢𝘤) 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵, 𝘤𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘶𝘳, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘮𝘣𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘬. 𝘏𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘶𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘴𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯: 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘪𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴? 𝘠𝘰𝘶'𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘭, 𝘨𝘦𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘺, 𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴, 𝘤𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘦, 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘰𝘣𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘵. 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘸𝘪𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘴. 𝘍𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘯 𝘏𝘪𝘷𝘦, 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘣 𝘢 𝘤𝘶𝘱 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺.