this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2026
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Title clowning on Liberal Arts, but that's one of the best educations to have in an Ai dominated job market... or any competitive job market.
"allow me to explain this quarters earnings in interpretive dance."
That would unironically be a more entertaining and useful presentation than pretty much any all-hands keynote delivered by the C-suite that I’ve ever seen in my career
yes, but it's systematically undervalued because stupid people don't understand how powerful soft skills are and think all that matter is hard skills.
but statistically most liberal art grads do very well later in life, even if they don't make as much starting out.
Who cares, let them sleep on the value of the degree. ;)
that’s because only rich people can waste their time on a degree like that
give stats for success rates account for low starting wealth
what is 'success'? starting salary, or mid-career, or late career?
regardless of what you major in, or your job skills you have, the biggest predictor of success is your parents wealth. no major, no college, nothing can overcome that element.
the poor kids with STEM degrees are the ones slinging coffee, not the rich ones. because they don't have the social connections, and the unpaid internships and the social skills to get them hired by all the hiring managers who are upper middle class people whose primary concern in hiring is social fit above all else. brogrammers only hire other brogrammers. woke brogrammers, only higher other woke brogrammers, etc. and poor college kids have no idea what any of that shit is because they are worrying about their food budget and their summer job slinging ice cream will be enough to cover next semesters books and fees.
frankly, I've never met a STEM person who wasn't from a upper middle class family, though a lot of them tell you they are 'poor' because their dad own drove a Lexus, not a Mercedes. Everyone I knew who went into STEM was way richer than my family. and they are totally convinced though their grew up in rags because they shopped at Abercomrbie and not Vineyard vines. And if I say 'hey well i grew up shopping at TJ Maxx' they tell me to go fuck myself for being a poor piece of shit.
https://www.hamiltonproject.org/publication/post/major-decisions-what-graduates-earn-over-their-lifetimes/
My mom did well but was modest and didn't have a huge house and never spent money on things we didn't need. She was frugal with spending and showed how to stack coupons. We used to get 500$ worth of clothes for like 180$.
Tj Maxx and Marshall's were my shit!!!! You could find the coolest stuff on the clearance rack.
I didn't grow up super poor but we didn't live like stereotypical rich people either.
It's because people who can risk pursuing a liberal arts degree are already well off
they aren't. but keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel superior.
Like half of the stem majors are foreign born rich kids. Just look at the tuition charged.
Only TE majors actually get paid well. Life Science degrees may as well be liberal arts.
yeah but they are majoring in STEM so they are automatically hard working and good people or something.
and lets not... acknowledge how many people in STEM... have liberal arts degrees... which is a lot.
I'd think plumbing, electrical might be even better. 😄
While those will be the last bastion. Not many people want to do them for many reasons, like running wire in an attic in the summer--you can put a gun to my head and I'm still not going up there (I do my own house repairs, but it's winter only).
Honestly I wish I just went to retail after moving back to family. My body's fubar. And I fixed espresso machines; which is a combination of plumbing and electrical. So far 0/5 trainees. They all end up making mistakes, breaking stuff with the hold my beer method, and give up after a few days.
Funny you say that, I'd have never left retail if the pay was decent. I used to be comouter technician back in the late 2000s and early 2010s. I loved that job. I did not want any other job. I certainly don't like my current software job more than that job.
That's kind of what happened to me. At first it was great, pay was not too bad, I was teaching myself new things, it was really pretty good. Then a decade later, it's just work to why am I even doing this.
I think the last three years I've been working solo, had a co-worker briefly but he needed something more consistent.
So from going back 6 years ago, having three co-workers and going to just me by myself, it started to feel like solitary confinement and I slowly started to hate it. The base pay didn't change; I've been not paid and ripped off too many times, customers suck but at least I shut down a few businesses that way. Then came the complaints about, I would charge $150 for a trip charge and $100 an hour after that. Which is actually reasonable because of all the work before hand, billing, ordering parts, driving, vehicle wear and fuel (I'd have to charge $250 for a trip now because of the all the expenses), tools, etc. And well the decade of experience. Not to mention fixing shit in a restaurant is a crappy work environment and the restaurant owners are the most annoying, entitled, cry babies. So I stopped doing service calls. And just did the $30 an hour, 1099, at the shop for whoever wants to bring their stuff in to get fixed.
I liked the work that I did but not the rest of it and the constant nagging from my ex-friend/boss (learned why you don't work with friends). It's like the whole business was set up around me and it just felt worse and worse. So yeah I recently quit and I'm hoping to get a job at a pet store while being a career college student. It makes me happy that there was maybe 10K of lost sales. A family member died, I got sick from the lettuce fun, and then I was told I'm a lazy drunk, get out of bed and go to work, and the kicker "was she really that important to you." So I just said fuck it, I'm done.
When I worked in retail, it wasn't bad. I was surrounded by pretty girls... some of which I dated, and well some that I had to smack away with a fly swatter. They let me do whatever I wanted there so it was good, got a 50% raise in a year and a position created just for me that paid as much as a supervisor. Interacted with all sorts of people, it was nice. I'll tell you, I have to get reacquainted with society. The last three-four years of only seeing an average of two people a day messed me up. I struggle going to the grocery store for longer than ten minutes.
Sorry for the long rant, but I just figured I'd share that I get what you mean.
LMAO was she?
My grandma.
Grandmas tend to be important.
Yeah. And I don't have much family to begin with. And also kinda shit to hear that when you've been friends with someone for over a decade.
Its up to you, but trades have very little flexibility. If the job market changes or dries up, you can transfer very little without going out and getting a new trade.
Yes but if those job markets have dried up, pretty much every market will have also.
not necessarily as a major although Im not even sure you can do it as a major. Most science including computer where in LAS in my experience.
Most Arts and Sciences are liberal arts. But yeah, you can still get general education in lots of places and it'll usually be under the liberal arts umbrella.