But law, maths, computer science, and weirdly, classics all appeal to the same minds. Are there examples of people with English Literature or History degrees who say the same?

I would have thought they would be more useful for the sorts of things that programmers are bad at, like dealing with, or in, lies and half-truths. And not be so good for the 'long chains of precise reasoning' type problems.

Of course, you might equally say that being able to handle the political side of life 'makes you a better programmer', but I don't think you'd mean it in the same way.

Ideally you'd want both.