The question of what to study in college has perplexed undergraduates since at least the invention of the registrar's office, though perhaps never more acutely than in an era when a machine can write a passable sonnet but cannot, as yet, fire someone with appropriate delicacy.
Now three chief executives are making the case that a degree in English or comparative literature — disciplines that have been hemorrhaging enrollment for a decade — may be precisely the preparation that future business leaders require. The argument, which arrives as students settle into their fall classes, amounts to a modest counteroffensive by the humanities against the engineers.
David Risher, the chief executive of Lyft, holds a degree in comparative literature, which he describes as training in understanding "what makes great literature work" — universal needs for adventure, love and relevance. "Any successful business does exactly the same," Mr. Risher said. He added, with the sort of confidence that comes from running a company valued in the billions, that "a liberal arts degree vaccinates you against irrelevance."
(One imagines the marketing department is already workshopping that tagline.)
Nikhil Deogun, who leads the Americas region for the advisory firm Brunswick Group, majored in English and economics, though he concedes the latter was "mostly to keep my dad happy." The liberal arts, Mr. Deogun said, taught him "how to make an argument, question an assumption, get to the heart of an issue, and explain why it matters" — which, he noted, constitutes a fair portion of what chief executives actually do.
The endorsements come as humanities enrollments have declined sharply. A New Yorker feature in 2023 reported that the study of English and history at the college level fell by a third in the preceding decade, as students migrated toward health sciences and engineering.
Whether the rise of artificial intelligence will reverse that trend remains to be seen. Mr. Risher believes it will. "AI will know all the answers," he said. "But you'll learn to ask the right questions."
It is, at minimum, a more cheerful prognosis than most English majors have heard lately.
Original story published in Fast Company: "Three CEOs on why their unlikely majors were the best choice for careers in business"