Hacker News Reader

Comment by sn0w_crash | Hacker News Reader

This is a promising trend. There is little to no economic value in the humanities.

That’s overly harsh. I think humanities, and people who major in them, bring value to the world, and do so in a way that CS doesn’t. But I agree that their contributions tend not to be valued financially. Given the cost of university education, it makes sense to me that people are pursuing financial rewards, even if they enjoy the humanities more.

Humanities jobs are almost gone, you'd have to get a job as a teacher teaching humanities. Everything is done with computers these days. They have to get a good enough job to pay off $80K in student loans, and clerk and retail jobs won't do that.

One of my favorite blogs is acoup.blog: “A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry.” The author critiques modern pop culture portrayals of history and warfare, and does so in an entertaining and informative way. He’s a history professor—one of those humanities folks.

So, no, not everything is “done with computers these days.” Sure, the blog is served by a computer, but the juice that makes it worth the squeeze comes from a good old fashioned humanities-shaped brain, and my life is richer for it.

Your core premise, though; that I agree with. There aren’t many jobs in the humanities. But that misses my point, which is that humanities have value beyond the financial.

Humanities degrees are mostly people paying for the party (also a great little book), not future Creators Of Great Art.

This is an ominous trend for the average software developer. Increased supply will lead to depressed wages.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com