Why You Should Hire the Liberal Arts Kid

Today, we'll take a close look at what critical thinking looks like and will look like in the hands of someone who's going to use it very well.

That said, I'd like to share with you an open letter from a liberal arts graduate.

To an employer.

Dear employer, I majored in history and more generally studied the liberal arts and humanities for a good reason.

I wanted an education, not just job training. And now, with this degree, I want to work for you. So please let me tell you why you should hire me.

The liberal arts have taught me to understand my place in the continuum of humanity and to recognize its incumbent responsibilities to honor the past, embrace the present, and build the future.

I did a semester abroad, wish it could have been more, but one thing is for sure, I appreciate what the word others means.

I see how interconnected we all are, and I've learned how long-lasting the consequences of our decisions can be.

That's not to be taken casually. I know what empathy is and why it's the most central of human feelings.

I've learned to think both logically and creatively, and I'm determined to keep building that capacity.

I've come to understand that one of the few things we humans do, that no other species does, is to reimagine the future. So one day I'll invent something, find the solution to a problem, or be the very first person to do something important. I promise.

I know the pleasures and the value of sitting still and listening to a symphony or wandering around and getting lost in a museum.

I read, I think, I vote, I volunteer, I generate ideas. I still write in cursive, believe it or not.

I don't want or need a faster internet. I'm looking for better, more trustworthy content.

I speak three languages and I'm learning a fourth.

I'm not intimidated by things I don't understand, you know, like how they broke the genetic code, what relativity is, or how Copernicus proved we're in a heliocentric system. But I love trying to understand them. Trying is exhilarating. Trying one thing leads to another, and another, and another, ad infinitum. Oh, did I mention that Latin is the language I'm learning?

When reading and re-reading Plato, Swift, Goethe, Emerson, Twain, Camus, it's like having conversations with them. Likewise, listening to Beethoven, Elgar, Copland, Blake, that would be Yubi, and Guthrie, Woody, of course.

It's like being there in person while they're composing or performing, and that goes for watching Van Gogh, Vermeer, Da Vinci, Monet, and Pollock paint their masterpieces.

These are the great experiences to be shared with the giants of history right here in the present.

The liberal arts teach me to be filled always with awe, wonder, interest, and fascination. Because if I let myself be awed, I'll be awesome. Filled with wonder, wonderful.

Interested, interesting.

Fascinated, well, fascinating. That's the liberal arts for you.

The liberal arts have taught me to understand, not just observe, to be fair and not opinionated, to think holistically, intuitively, playfully, and inductively, to think randomly as well as linearly, and to be unafraid of ambiguity, newness, and novelty, to take intellectual risk, to seek to answer questions, and then to question those answers, and never let a conclusion be the place where I just got tired of thinking.

So that means I'm pretty good at figuring stuff out Recognizing patterns Connecting dots Synthesizing ideas Deriving meaning And solving problems in very creative ways that you might find interesting And perhaps even new And I'm going to keep on getting better at doing those things Right in front of your eyes Oh, and by the way, don't think I haven't studied and excelled at the physical sciences, mathematics, and other STEM stuff. Look at my transcript, biology, astronomy, and calculus, not to mention international business and economics.

You know what I figured out? STEM teaches what and how.

Humanities teaches why. I also know how distilled spirits are made. when where and why accounting and alphabets came into being i know that albert einstein and thomas edison both had teachers who said they wouldn't amount to anything i know the profound influence that 19th century british poet william ernest henley had on nelson mandela i know what's going on to replace silicone and chip making are you surprised it's coming and how wonderfully simple and artistic Morse code is. And I know that Peter the Great became Tsar of all Russia when he was only 10 years old.

See what I mean about being interested and fascinating? There it is.

So if you're honoring people like me, I'd sure like to join your team. If not, I hope I've convinced you why you should. good.

When may I call to set up our interview? Let's take a 30-second break to hear from one of our sponsors. And when we come back, I'm sure you're going to want to know how she did. I've got some good news to tell you.

Before we go on, I want to take a moment to thank the people who make this show possible. Vantage Point is brought to you by Single Task, the team that produces this show. It is also brought to you by Kardam Consulting. This show is also brought to you by my friend and a sponsor of this show from day one, Stephen Bozer. Thank you, all of you, for your support, and please support them the way they support us. One more thing for the FDU community homecoming is at the Florham campus on September 19th.

Details on homecoming and on all the other FDU events or on the FDU website, that address is support.fdu.edu slash events.

Hi, I'm back and I'm dying to tell you how this liberal arts graduate did.

She didn't get the job or one of the jobs that was posted by this company. She did much better than that.

The hiring manager contacted her and said we don't think you're a fit for the jobs that we listed but they had some great ideas for what they could do with her in a more creative sense and in essence they created a job for her they liked her skills they liked her attitude they liked her behavior and they were confident she could do the job. She was offered and accepted a job that would coordinate the customer-centered activities internally for all customer-facing employees.

She got the job and is flourishing in it.

And with that, we'll keep tabs on her as we move forward. But in the meantime, and I've got three good, solid aphorisms for you, and then some mind-stretching. Aphorism number one, if what you're willing to do exceeds what you want to do, anything is possible.

Another way of saying that is that when attitudes change, results change.

Aphorism number two there are times when one cannot overestimate the great satisfaction of remaining silent which brings up a nice piece of advice for aphorism number three never miss an opportunity to shut up when it matters most and if i could lay all of this in the hands of the a couple of great minds i want to tell you very quickly things that winston churchill and mark twain said that basically indicate the same thought churchill was coming out of parliament one day after having given a very long verbose speech which he was known to do a constituent came up to him and said sir winston why did you give such a long speech and his answer, a well-known one because, madam, I didn't have time to write a short one and in the same slant Mark Twain was asked for advice on how to write a good book which is something that he proved that he knows how to do better than anybody else.

And Mark Twain said, the secret of a good book is to have a good beginning and a good ending, and to have the two of them as close together as possible.

If that isn't enough, consider what Ernest Hemingway said, that all great American literature starts with Huckleberry Finn. And now I want to give you a tantalizing what if.

If I mention the name to you, Charles Dodgson, would you know who that is?

About half the people do and half the people don't. Charles Dodgson was the given name of Lewis Carroll, the author of, that's right, Alice in Wonderland.

He had written a couple of books before and was known as a good writer, but that was about it.

But then he wrote Alice in 1863, Alice in Wonderland.

When he was finished with it and was satisfied with his story, He approached Alexander Macmillan, the head of, that's right, Macmillan Publishing in London.

He wanted to publish the book.

Macmillan, who had a brilliant mind and a sharp eye, said the book was not enough. It needed illustrations.

And Dodgson, or Carroll, said, well, I have them. He said, they're not good enough.

I think you ought to contact John Tenniel, who was considered the premier illustrator in London. But Lewis Carroll didn't know Tenniel and didn't know anybody who could introduce him. So he asked Macmillan.

And Macmillan said, that's not my job to do that. That's your job. Come back to me when you got something.

It's been widely speculated that Macmillan would have printed that book as is because it was that good, but he made him go further. Well, how do you get to John Tenniel if you don't know him? Well, you think and you think, and you finally come up with the answer, who do I know that also knows Tenniel? The answer to that was a guy by the name of Tom Taylor, a name that has fallen into obscurity in history.

But Tom Taylor knew Tenniel and introduced Charles Dodgson. This is still 1863.

They worked together for 11 months and put together that great book which you know now which you if you're like me has read at least twice once you went when you were 10 and once recently Macmillan liked it Macmillan published it And get this, since 1865, the publication date of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, that book, over 160 years, and has been published more than any other book in history other than the Bible. Question, what if Tom Taylor didn't introduce Charles Dodgson to John Tenniel?

What if there were other books that were that good that just never got that loving touch?

That introduction in 1863 by Tom Taylor was the 1860s version of LinkedIn.

Think about the importance of doing good networking. working.

There it is. There's the story in a nutshell.

The question is, and you can think about this for a long, time, what if Tom Taylor did not introduce Tenniel and Dodgson?

That's it for this episode. Thanks again for watching.

I'll see you on Thursday this week. we're increasing the frequency of our podcast and I'll see you on Thursday with a tantalizing look at perhaps not hiring somebody we've hired or perhaps what would happen when you hire somebody you shouldn't see you Thursday until then keep questioning keep learning and keep thinking critically