I Went to a fascinating Meetup last night hosted by a local TED discussion group. The topic was reinventing liberal arts. I couldn't help but get angry as I realized how valuable a liberal arts education is and just how far we've gone away from understanding the value of a well rounded person in our society. I went home from this and started rewriting my LinkedIn profile. I mean, imagine if we were allowed to truly show who we were and what we were capable of, aside from these narrow areas of focus. I started working on it, but the first few lines sounded more like a blog post.
The point I wanted to make was that, sadly, we live in a world of specificity. It serves a purpose and we do need experts in such areas as medicine, law, technology, journalism, finance, engineering and education. But what, if anything, is said about the person who can merge ideas together to form something new, who can bring in aspects of all areas of their interests and knowledge to form a new product or system or type of organization or method? What is said about the person who can look at a room filled with different people and different perspectives and find the whole that is greater than the sum of its parts or the idea that will effectively merge things together to form a better solution?
The world of standardized tests and content memorization has served us well to a point. But, now we are living in a time talked about by Daniel Pink in his book A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age. It is an age of conceptual thinking, and there ought to be a way to represent this on our resumes or LinkedIn profiles. I'm sad, somewhat, because Pink wrote about this in 2005 and I was really hoping we would be there by now - that we would value a liberal arts education more and appreciate people like this in our workforce.
The point I wanted to make was that, sadly, we live in a world of specificity. It serves a purpose and we do need experts in such areas as medicine, law, technology, journalism, finance, engineering and education. But what, if anything, is said about the person who can merge ideas together to form something new, who can bring in aspects of all areas of their interests and knowledge to form a new product or system or type of organization or method? What is said about the person who can look at a room filled with different people and different perspectives and find the whole that is greater than the sum of its parts or the idea that will effectively merge things together to form a better solution?
The world of standardized tests and content memorization has served us well to a point. But, now we are living in a time talked about by Daniel Pink in his book A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age. It is an age of conceptual thinking, and there ought to be a way to represent this on our resumes or LinkedIn profiles. I'm sad, somewhat, because Pink wrote about this in 2005 and I was really hoping we would be there by now - that we would value a liberal arts education more and appreciate people like this in our workforce.
4 comments:
You really have said what I've felt for a long time, but in better words. I hope you will write more on this in the future.
Thanks. I'm glad this bit of writing connected with you. I hope I get the chance to do more writing on this topic. I think there are a lot of people who feel undervalued like this. If you don't mind me asking, what type of work do you do? You don't have to answer publicly. You can write to me here. lee@glidercell.com
Totally "feel you!" When I tell someone I earned my Masters in Liberal Arts, they look at me like I must not be worth much in any field. I want to tell them that after earning this degree, I feel more valuable in "any" field!
Amen to everything you guys have said here. Hope you'll join our group for upcoming discussions on these topics. https://glidercell.com/join-us. FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1794093154221514
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