“Soft” degrees vs. STEM

I believe the “soft” degrees will be the most important in the future.

Of course, I appreciate the importance of science and the incredible technological progress we’re witnessing. It wouldn’t have been possible without multiple generations of scientists and computer entrepreneurs laboring relentlessly on their once-crazy ideas.

Still though I’m not rushing to send my kids to extra-curricular coding or “STEM” (science, technology, engineering, maths) classes. In fact, I’ve missed that train already and I was well aware of that train while living in Silicon Valley where kids are doing calculus and coding at some crazy early age.

My two older boys are well into their teenage years and are very unlikely to develop an interest in computer science. My twins are tens years old and their paths are not looking different. All of my kids are serious athletes and I’m very proud of that part of our lives.

I have a friend, a data scientist, with who I often argue. He praises technical skills and their ever-growing importance, especially in business.

I am not so sure. Actually, I have a dramatically different vision of the future. I think that in the not-so-distant future many software engineers and data scientists will be like gardeners and handymen. I don’t mean to offend gardeners and handymen! But these will be highly commoditized professions. Maybe not low-skilled in the traditional sense of the expression but at the bottom of the professional and social chain. What makes me…