Bach's passion

It's amazing how a good communicator can inspire. Especially a passionate communicator who shows how much he cares about the subject at hand. If you haven't seen this, you should: James Bach's talk @ Google.

What I found really interesting is the combination of subjects he manages to make relevant for his field. We all should follow his lead and find inspiration and guidance from more than a single discipline.

Learn, not just about technology, but about social sciences which make the technology relevant and also make the development of the technology easier. For example, if you could communicate better and understand people's limitations on what they can perceive, you would be able to gather better requirements, or capture bug reports more efficiently, or just develop humane software (*). Not to mention the applications outside the world of software (love life, friends, networking your career).

In fact, this all points to aspiring to becoming a generalist, the more you can aprehend about different subjects the more you can then combine in different ways under different contexts. Current schooling does not aim to this, but you can always take care of your education (in addition to or instead of the regular, your call). In the words of the great Paul Lutus "do not let your schooling interfere with your education".

(*): More on humane software some day.