A Liberal Arts Education Teaches Students to Analyze and Express Ideas Efficiently

I was trying to write a 140 character a response to this twitter thread on the cost/value of education in the US, but (ironically, given my liberal arts education and the thesis of this post), failed. So here’s the thread and a few thoughts that were too long for a tweet.

@arctictony : @aweissman @ewiesen. Have to disagree. Liberal arts may not work for a salary man, but it sure helps develop the innovation muscle.

@aweissman: @ewiesen depends how you define “education” – if by that you mean liberal arts education, I see low and declining ROI. Skillz pay the billz

@ewiesen: @aweissman I like Mish but I think that article is crap. Education might have poor ROI during an economic crisis, but pays in the long term.

@aweissman: “The cost of a US education seems enormously out of whack for what it provides.” Mike “Mish” Shedlock http://bit.ly/twOmf

Probably the greatest asset of the liberal arts education is an exposure to all sorts ideas and arguments across all sorts of domains. Your assignment, in general, no matter what your field of study, is to fully understand the author’s argument and then either express in your own words why the argument either holds true or is faulty.

Often, in a single class, you’ll read 4 or 5 different authors who answer the same question with a different answer. One author will build upon another’s body of work, but refute a key, perhaps subtle, point, in his predecessor’s argument, and then diverge into a new solution.  The trick for the student is to recognize the essence of the arguments, highlight the differences, and either argue for one side or propose a new argument and refute both.

Honestly, I believe that the liberal arts education is by far the most valuable of any you could choose as an undergraduate. Undergraduate study is very much about learning how to learn, preparing yourself to quickly absorb domain specific knowledge you’ll need for whatever job you find. I will always hire a sharp mind and a fast learner over a candidate who happens to have experience with a software suite or programming language we happen to be using.

The “learning how to learn” approach to undergraduate is not specific to studying the arts–you can come out of engineering school a fast learner, but something about the “use method X to produce result Y” rigidness of engineering always made this track more game-able to me. What I mean is that it was easier to slack on creativity in engineering coursework, to just go on autopilot, follow the rules, and arrive at the answer. The program was a system or game, and the rules were simple.

In the arts, to craft an excellent essay in response to a novel or treatise, you want to say something original–this takes creativity. And, the prerequisite is a deep, deep understanding of the body of work you are studying, which itself is not straightforward. You might have two experts on Aristotle with starkly different interpretations. When even the experts disagree, it’s difficult to just set your mind on autopilot cruising towards the solution, because there’s no one path to the answer and not just one answer.

Another, more clearly practical result of the liberal arts education is training in efficient communication. Since graduation, the biggest bottleneck I’ve seen in the business world is communication.  Often, you’ll read productivity essayists argue for writing shorter emails, reducing time spent on phone calls, running standing meetings. They only address half of the communication problem: clear, concise expression of ideas.  A liberal arts degree is probably the best way to train this sort of expression, especially when you have great teachers who force you to distill massive treatises into arguments of only a few type written pages of your own.

The less frequently discussed communication bottleneck is on the interpretation or absorption side.  Not everyone is an excellent communicator, and inefficiency on the side of the speaker / emailer translates to wasted time for the listener.  Hence, being able to instantly recognize where a slow discussion is driving, identifying the thesis early, is massively beneficial because it allows a sharp listener to interject and drive discussion towards the goal more efficiently by steering away from tangents or deep diversions into non-essential information.

I do not think I can express enough the value I get out of working with people who are great communicators–both on the expression and understanding ends. When you know you are working with a keen mind who will grasp not only your words but the goal you are driving towards, the purpose and intent driving your words, a sentence will suffice where a page would be required for a colleague not as adept at understanding motives.

I love working with expert communicators, and I think the liberal arts breeds them well.

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