Liberal Arts Colleges.

[spilok 1,132]

Undergraduate:  Liberal Arts, English Major.  Graduate: Bucknell University, MS degree.  

Taught English for 10 Years, Joined 3M company in Business Machines.  Became National Acct. Manager at ADP (Automatic Data Processing).  Started my own business selling and servicing business machines with 36 employees.  Grew to 10 million in sales (30 years in business).  Retired and now quite "well off" by all standards.

Thank you for my Liberal Arts Degree.  It allowed me to be quite liberal in my job choices and decisions.  Even though I'm a Conservative, my Liberal Arts degree has served me very, very well.

Stan

[qqwertz 770]

1 hour ago, StAgre said:

Liberal Arts Colleges have the highest rates of Nobel Prize winning alumni, but who wants to let facts get in the way of making fun of philosophy majors? 🙄

I really would like to see that statistics. If you have a source, please share it here.

14 hours ago, Freo said:

Didn't realize one needed a degree to think !

You don't need it (for instance, Steve Jobs did well without one). However, it really, really helps. Imagine person A, who hangs out with a lot of people who only talk about the latest football results, and person B, who hangs out with people who talk about their latest assignments on logic. Person A and B may be equally intelligent, but person B will for sure be better trained to work on difficult questions in law, medicine, investment ...

I have a science degree, but I lift my hat to anyone with a philosophy degree who took their studies seriously. A well trained philosopher is much more useful to society/business than a badly trained scientist or engineer. At the end, what matters is what you make out of your degree. 

Peter

 

[dmwalker 601]

55 minutes ago, qqwertzde said:

If you have a source, please share it here

Perhaps this, from 2016, which says "Finally, and most surprisingly, liberal-art colleges like Amherst and Swarthmore figure in the top 10 for producing Nobel winners in the sciences.":

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chart-nobel-prize-winners-shows-082850633.html

Edited October 26, 2022 by dmwalker

[spilok 1,132]

17 minutes ago, qqwertzde said:

I really would like to see that statistics. If you have a source, please share it here.

You don't need it (for instance, Steve Jobs did well without one). However, it really, really helps. Imagine person A, who hangs out with a lot of people who only talk about the latest football results, and person B, who hangs out with people who talk about their latest assignments on logic. Person A and B may be equally intelligent, but person B will for sure be better trained to work on difficult questions in law, medicine, investment ...

I have a science degree, but I lift my hat to anyone with a philosophy degree who took their studies seriously. A well trained philosopher is much more useful to society/business than a badly trained scientist or engineer. At the end, what matters is what you make out of your degree. 

Peter

 

YES.  It's what you make out of your degree.

 

[n4gix 4,947]

20 hours ago, PilotPete99 said:

Although my degrees are in Economics and Accounting, the two philosophy classes I had were amongst the best classes I ever took. 

I had a mid-life change of vocations. I was originally on a Comp-Sci career and earned a BS degree. After a few years of near slave labor in the field, I returned to college and set off on a quest to become a Catholic Priest. It was required by the seminary for me to pass as many philosophy classes as possible. I wasn't required to actually earn a degree, just have sufficient transfer credits to satisfy the seminary's entry requirements.

I thoroughly enjoyed the twelve courses in philosophy and was well prepared for the course of seminary studies, which ultimately allowed me to earn my MDiv, be ordained, and a few years later earn my ThD.

[charliearon 3,017]

2 hours ago, spilok said:

 

 Joined 3M company in Business Machines.  Became National Acct. Manager at ADP (Automatic Data Processing).  Started my own business selling and servicing business machines with 36 employees.  Grew to 10 million in sales (30 years in business).  Retired and now quite "well off" by all standards.

Stan

ACK!  I worked on 3M copiers with Huber Business Systems and then with Harris/Lanier/3m/Lanier Worldwide/Ricoh and retired after 26 years in the business.  I had a strange feeling when I saw your ex sales manager title!  😀

[W2DR 1,859]

My oldest son was a History major in college. When he came home for Christmas during his senior year I asked him how the search for a job was going. He replied it wasn't going too well. Then he told me he probably should have majored in something more meaningful...like Philosophy.

[FBW737 511]

On 10/25/2022 at 7:45 PM, PilotPete99 said:

Although my degrees are in Economics and Accounting, the two philosophy classes I had were amongst the best classes I ever took. 
 

Cheers, Pete

I started out in Mechanical Engineering and took a humanities elective which was basically a philosophy class. A few years after I graduated the itch still hadn't gone away and I undertook a degree course in Philosophy. It wasn't until a good decade later that the dust settled and now I am in possession of an irrefutable world view that is unique to me. 🤪

BTW for anyone who doesn't know the word Philosophy mean Love of Wisdom. Here is a good philosophical question. 'What is Wisdom?'

Here is a good answer. Wisdom is the outcome of bad judgment. 😒

Edited October 27, 2022 by FBW737

[PilotPete99 915]

3 hours ago, n4gix said:

I had a mid-life change of vocations. I was originally on a Comp-Sci career and earned a BS degree. After a few years of near slave labor in the field, I returned to college and set off on a quest to become a Catholic Priest. It was required by the seminary for me to pass as many philosophy classes as possible. I wasn't required to actually earn a degree, just have sufficient transfer credits to satisfy the seminary's entry requirements.

I thoroughly enjoyed the twelve courses in philosophy and was well prepared for the course of seminary studies, which ultimately allowed me to earn my MDiv, be ordained, and a few years later earn my ThD.

Wow, that’s quite a journey! I was originally in the college of engineering, but was having too much fun as a freshman and pledging a fraternity. I transferred into economics before I flunked out of engineering! Then I got a bachelors in accounting and a masters in taxation.  It’s amazing that I still use some of the concepts I learned in those philosophy classes. 
 

Cheers, Pete 

[FBW737 511]

53 minutes ago, PilotPete99 said:

masters in taxation.

Who does this sound like Fr. Bill?🤣

[PilotPete99 915]

13 hours ago, FBW737 said:

I started out in Mechanical Engineering and took a humanities elective which was basically a philosophy class. A few years after I graduated the itch still hadn't gone away and I undertook a degree course in Philosophy. It wasn't until a good decade later that the dust settled and now I am in possession of an irrefutable world view that is unique to me. 🤪

BTW for anyone who doesn't know the word Philosophy mean Love of Wisdom. Here is a good philosophical question. 'What is Wisdom?'

Here is a good answer. Wisdom is the outcome of bad judgment. 😒

My dad was an electrical engineer and my grandfather was a mechanical engineer. I was planning to become a civil engineer, although I was also thinking about mechanical engineering. When I started at Rutgers in 1988, there was actually a bit of a shortage of engineering jobs available. Between that and my "voluntary" struggle to maintain a good GPA, I figured it was best to switch majors.

Cheers, Pete

[PilotPete99 915]

10 hours ago, FBW737 said:

Who does this sound like Fr. Bill?🤣

Oh boy, sounds like there's another tax geek here? 😁

Cheers, Pete

[FBW737 511]

1 hour ago, PilotPete99 said:

Oh boy, sounds like there's another tax geek here? 😁

Cheers, Pete

I was thinking Matthew the tax collector.😆

[spilok 1,132]

17 hours ago, charliearon said:

ACK!  I worked on 3M copiers with Huber Business Systems and then with Harris/Lanier/3m/Lanier Worldwide/Ricoh and retired after 26 years in the business.  I had a strange feeling when I saw your ex sales manager title!  😀

Small world indeed!

[charliearon 3,017]

2 hours ago, spilok said:

Small world indeed!

Let's see if we can make it smaller!  Did you know this guy?  Dominic Pontrelli.  He was in charge of all 3M dealerships before coming to Lanier as my District Manager and then on to headquarters as the VP of Marketing.

This will be my last off topic post here! 😀