Sadly, oral communication skills are almost completely ignored in the interview process for IT positions. In our office 95% of the interactions are via Slack and email, nobody under 40 has a work phone on their desk, and face-to-face chats are rare. Candidates are rated/hired based on technical aptitude and not soft skills.
20250523 Comment on H. W. Brands-What’s left to teach
When I read today’s essay, for some reason known only to my subconscious, some dialogue from the movie "A Few Good Men" emerged into my conscious thought. There, Colonel Jessup (played by Jack Nicholson) on the witness stand spoke: "We use words like 'honor,' 'code,' 'loyalty.' We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punch line."
That lead me to a thought experiment: what three concepts expressed as single-word values are important enough to me to explain what humans can do that cannot be done (yet) by artificial intelligence?
Again, my conscious mind came forth with the following three words: “trust,” “loyalty,” and “justice.”
I pondered why? Could it be that machines may learn rules, but humans live meanings? And in the realm of meanings—in the leap of faith that trust requires, in the binding nature of loyalty, in the righteous fire of justice—human beings still stand alone.
I then realized that I was channeling Douglas Rushkoff as expressed in his book “Team Human.”
In this same vein, I have long admired the writings and thoughts of the late Prof. Robert Solomon and his wife Kathleen Higgins. And for any who may see what I write today and wish to explore this idea further, I commend starting with Prof. Solomon’s “The Passions: Emotions and the Meaning of Life” (1976).
Yes, historians are trained to evaluate evidence, think critically, read closely, and write convincingly. I think we will survive.
The threat to history education comes not from automation...but from elsewhere...
I was reading in foreign policy magazine that the biggest hires of history majors is the defense department.
Sadly, oral communication skills are almost completely ignored in the interview process for IT positions. In our office 95% of the interactions are via Slack and email, nobody under 40 has a work phone on their desk, and face-to-face chats are rare. Candidates are rated/hired based on technical aptitude and not soft skills.
20250523 Comment on H. W. Brands-What’s left to teach
When I read today’s essay, for some reason known only to my subconscious, some dialogue from the movie "A Few Good Men" emerged into my conscious thought. There, Colonel Jessup (played by Jack Nicholson) on the witness stand spoke: "We use words like 'honor,' 'code,' 'loyalty.' We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punch line."
That lead me to a thought experiment: what three concepts expressed as single-word values are important enough to me to explain what humans can do that cannot be done (yet) by artificial intelligence?
Again, my conscious mind came forth with the following three words: “trust,” “loyalty,” and “justice.”
I pondered why? Could it be that machines may learn rules, but humans live meanings? And in the realm of meanings—in the leap of faith that trust requires, in the binding nature of loyalty, in the righteous fire of justice—human beings still stand alone.
I then realized that I was channeling Douglas Rushkoff as expressed in his book “Team Human.”
In this same vein, I have long admired the writings and thoughts of the late Prof. Robert Solomon and his wife Kathleen Higgins. And for any who may see what I write today and wish to explore this idea further, I commend starting with Prof. Solomon’s “The Passions: Emotions and the Meaning of Life” (1976).