Products must appeal to human beings, and a rigorously cultivated humanistic sensibility is a valued asset for this challenge. That is perhaps why a technology leader of the highest status—Steve Jobs—recently credited an appreciation for the liberal arts as key to his company’s tremendous success with their various i-gadgets. It is a convenient truth: You go into the humanities to pursue your intellectual passion; and it just so happens, as a by-product, that you emerge as a desired commodity for industry. Such is the halo of human flourishing. Damon Horowitz is currently in-house philosopher at Google. This essay is an excerpt of a keynote address he gave in the spring at the BiblioTech conference at Stanford University.
From Technologist to Philosopher – Manage Your Career – The Chronicle of Higher Education found via Willard McCarty and the Digital Humanist list.