I chose the STEM path and, during my student years, tended to look down on the humanities. Today, however, I believe they are deeply important. While business and employment often prioritize numbers and technical expertise, I feel the true strength of the humanities lies in “developing a mastery of the written word.” This is not to say that those in STEM disregard text, but rather that the humanities place greater emphasis on multilayered contextual analysis and expressive power.
The difference between STEM and the humanities may lie in the focal point of one’s perspective. A STEM perspective prioritizes a third-person viewpoint—how to observe and manipulate an object or phenomenon. In contrast, a humanities perspective, while observing that same object, focuses on a second-person viewpoint: how to take responsibility for and engage with it.
When viewed this way, relying solely on STEM expertise creates an imbalance in perspective within a society where complex contexts intertwine. While specialized skills are necessary, the forces that actually move society are the people and organizations entangled in multilayered contexts, such as human relationships, conflicting interests, history, and law.
This is a matter of the relative weight of the perspectives required in STEM versus the humanities; it is by no means suggesting that what is required in one is unnecessary in the other. It is simply that the emphasis of the training differs, and both perspectives are indispensable.
