English as a major

[Anonymous]

An English major is about the best possible--fantastic preparation in critical thinking, communication, textual analysis, argumentative/interpretative writing. In other words: exactly those skills that AI can't muster, unlike, say, coding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:An English major is about the best possible--fantastic preparation in critical thinking, communication, textual analysis, argumentative/interpretative writing. In other words: exactly those skills that AI can't muster, unlike, say, coding.

DP. I’m a huge believer in the value of majors like English and history, but I want to push back on your last remark. It’s so unnecessary, reductive, and snarky. I’m also not sure it’s true. Already, AI is pretty remarkable — I’m in a field filled with critical thinkers and folks who do deep analysis and writing, and I’m floored by how well AI does. It just feels like we can move beyond the simplistic “humanities vs. coders” trope by now.

[Anonymous]

I've been reading this thread with a bucket of popcorn over here. I'm a c-suite exec at a midsized corporation with an English degree, no grad school. The 6 division heads who report to me and make 7 figures in total comp are English majors as well. And they each have many direct reports who are English majors making $250K+. They're not just coming from Top 20 schools, either--honestly our lowest performer is an Amherst grad and our top performers are from GWU and SUNY-New Paltz. The folks running finance, operations, etc. have degrees in other subjects but an English major with good people skills, grit and tenacity can do quite well for themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Read a bunch of novels and write about them, easiest possible path to collect a four year degree.

ignorant take. did you go to college? a good one?