Humanities degrees are sometimes disparaged because they don't teach you how to do a "real" job. Indeed, you won't learn how to file a company's taxes or fix a computer - but this does not mean they are useless.
Studying literature, philosophy, anthropology, history, and related subjects provides a deeper and more fundamental education than any purely technical discipline can provide. You will gain several valuable skills that are rarely addressed in degree courses meant solely to generate productive employees. These include:
- Effective oral and written communication
- Critical thinking
- Being able to condense complex concepts into useful information
- Familiarity with other cultures and languages
- Creating a logical line of reasoning (and recognizing false arguments)
- Working with abstract ideas as well as tangible concepts
- Understanding how other people think and form beliefs
These abilities are, at the very least, complementary to ordinary workplace skills. In fact, they can often set up a person to occupy leadership positions later on in their career.
