Very interesting. This describes my coursework at Stanford almost exactly.
My major was STS (Science, Technology, and Society) with a minor in psychology. Then I studied sociology in grad school.
What I focused on was social influence, persuasion, and behavioral change. I took courses on negotiation, deception, cults, magic, minority influence, organizational development, group dynamics, arbitration, personality/social psychology, persuasive technology, and a ton more. I was a researcher in the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab for years.
And I mixed it with practical applications of negotiations in the field.
The coursework has helped me dramatically in understanding the motivations, attitudes, and behaviors of others.
I still remember one of my Comm professors talking about how other technical disciplines tend to look down on areas like psych/comm. She said something I'll never forget: "The value isn't in the difficulty of the material, but the usefulness."
I use my social psychology background in my work with people on iwillteachyoutoberich every day.
The difference between the hard sciences and soft sciences is where the difficulty comes in. Grasping the concepts of say, quantum physics, is ridiculously difficult. Once you fully understand it, it is relatively easy to apply. The principles of negotiation are easy to understand, but very difficult to apply.
People in hard sciences are typically elitist because they've had to prove themselves right up front. Making it through school is a more concrete accomplishment. Who knows if that psyc major will ever amount to anything.
It seems like a double-major in STS and CS would pretty much make for the ultimate entrepreneur.
Need to raise money, get customers, convince great people to work for you, or sell the company? Draw on your STS skills. Need to write amazing software? Draw on your CS skills.
I'll have to look into STS and consider that, but unfortunately, I don't really want to double major because I want time to do other stuff (like hack and maybe have a social life).
Hey Ramit, great comment. I think your educational experience was unique in how applicable it is to what you now do--for a non pre-professional degree.
For someone outside of college, how'd you recommend people learn those topics?
As I was reading your comment, I thought to myself that this sounds a lot like the make-up of the book I'm currently reading. Then I got to the final sentence and understood why.
My major was STS (Science, Technology, and Society) with a minor in psychology. Then I studied sociology in grad school.
What I focused on was social influence, persuasion, and behavioral change. I took courses on negotiation, deception, cults, magic, minority influence, organizational development, group dynamics, arbitration, personality/social psychology, persuasive technology, and a ton more. I was a researcher in the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab for years.
And I mixed it with practical applications of negotiations in the field.
The coursework has helped me dramatically in understanding the motivations, attitudes, and behaviors of others.
I still remember one of my Comm professors talking about how other technical disciplines tend to look down on areas like psych/comm. She said something I'll never forget: "The value isn't in the difficulty of the material, but the usefulness."
I use my social psychology background in my work with people on iwillteachyoutoberich every day.