"Where to, son?"
"French class, and then violin soon after."
"Splendid. Which reminds me, didn't you perform in London last summer?"
"Oh yes. All too well! We're planning to get an orchestra together soon."
"Brilliant things for brilliant minds. Aren't you trying one of those coaching classes?"
"No; which ones?"
"The ones that crowds are surging to, of course. A handful of names and handfuls of people!"
(smiling) "The Maths and Physics classes? I love math, but I don't like hard-core math. There's a lot of math in music, you know. And in languages too!"
(patting the other) "Better keep in touch with what some of the other folks are doing, you! A tip for a tuppence. They'll leave you behind before you realize it."
"Oh, sure." (casually)
Humanities. They are contexts in which some people would shrug when they heard this word. It's a lovely word indeed, but it has been brushed away and slighted too often for its etymological origins to be of any significance.
But there's news. Oh, don't the lot of us love news? Data - concrete data - nothing whimsical, no fantasy, nothing dreamy at all. Companies like Google are beginning to recruit personnel with humanities backgrounds - yes indeed - in their core programming, idea-ting and developing teams (or in managerial posts to these teams).
Of course, one would say it was injustice, it was not insightful, it was simply disastrous. One would cavil about how incongruous these teams would be, on a deeper note. One would argue that every stream had its own space- and that they had had some assurance that these wouldn't overlap.
So, why did Google make such a decision? What was their rationale behind it? An experiment? A blind tinker with what was in their control? I'd be prepared to refute that. In fact, I think that the answer is more mathematical than ever.
Sometimes, it's enough to listen to people- to read about their marvelous stories, to connect the past with the present, to connect the past, present, our geography and put some math in it, to weave out stories to remember simple facts that are too heavy in quantity to learn by rote, to spice up poetry with a bit of yourself, to make the most of math in an instrument, to break down words and decipher word origins through a part of you, you never knew existed.
And that's what, for a major chunk of people, humanities talks about. The etymology comes into play beautifully in this one exception. 'Humanities' signifies connecting with humanity and living humanity. When you critique someone for being inhumane, you'd say it with a comparison against some frame. When you empathize with characters of history, you're understanding what it means never to make the same mistake again. And then you're following your passion - your love and interest- and being wonderfully human. Maybe you'll stumble, maybe you're risking it- but you know the odds and you have ends to make up for them.
Google knows that too. They know what took you where it has brought you. A different spark - a different color, perhaps! But nevertheless, a spark they need and value, because it is practical, it is true at heart, and it is grounded by a lot of common sense.
And moreover, it's the differences, and the diversions in perspective , that converge to sculpt beautiful things. It's the different people. It's the wonderful people.
"French class, and then violin soon after."
"Splendid. Which reminds me, didn't you perform in London last summer?"
"Oh yes. All too well! We're planning to get an orchestra together soon."
"Brilliant things for brilliant minds. Aren't you trying one of those coaching classes?"
"No; which ones?"
"The ones that crowds are surging to, of course. A handful of names and handfuls of people!"
(smiling) "The Maths and Physics classes? I love math, but I don't like hard-core math. There's a lot of math in music, you know. And in languages too!"
(patting the other) "Better keep in touch with what some of the other folks are doing, you! A tip for a tuppence. They'll leave you behind before you realize it."
"Oh, sure." (casually)
Humanities. They are contexts in which some people would shrug when they heard this word. It's a lovely word indeed, but it has been brushed away and slighted too often for its etymological origins to be of any significance.
But there's news. Oh, don't the lot of us love news? Data - concrete data - nothing whimsical, no fantasy, nothing dreamy at all. Companies like Google are beginning to recruit personnel with humanities backgrounds - yes indeed - in their core programming, idea-ting and developing teams (or in managerial posts to these teams).
Of course, one would say it was injustice, it was not insightful, it was simply disastrous. One would cavil about how incongruous these teams would be, on a deeper note. One would argue that every stream had its own space- and that they had had some assurance that these wouldn't overlap.
So, why did Google make such a decision? What was their rationale behind it? An experiment? A blind tinker with what was in their control? I'd be prepared to refute that. In fact, I think that the answer is more mathematical than ever.
Sometimes, it's enough to listen to people- to read about their marvelous stories, to connect the past with the present, to connect the past, present, our geography and put some math in it, to weave out stories to remember simple facts that are too heavy in quantity to learn by rote, to spice up poetry with a bit of yourself, to make the most of math in an instrument, to break down words and decipher word origins through a part of you, you never knew existed.
And that's what, for a major chunk of people, humanities talks about. The etymology comes into play beautifully in this one exception. 'Humanities' signifies connecting with humanity and living humanity. When you critique someone for being inhumane, you'd say it with a comparison against some frame. When you empathize with characters of history, you're understanding what it means never to make the same mistake again. And then you're following your passion - your love and interest- and being wonderfully human. Maybe you'll stumble, maybe you're risking it- but you know the odds and you have ends to make up for them.
Google knows that too. They know what took you where it has brought you. A different spark - a different color, perhaps! But nevertheless, a spark they need and value, because it is practical, it is true at heart, and it is grounded by a lot of common sense.
And moreover, it's the differences, and the diversions in perspective , that converge to sculpt beautiful things. It's the different people. It's the wonderful people.
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