If the decline is clear, so are the reasons for the fall. Given the huge financial cost of most college degrees, many students want theirs to lead directly to gainful employment. Many struggle to see how studying philosophy or comparative literature will get them a job. STEM and business degrees seem a much safer bet. What’s driving the revival of his long dormant liberal arts-honed critical thinking skills? AI, he explained: “The technical skills are being provided by the machine, or by very competent people in other parts of the world who have really nailed the technical skills at a relatively low cost. I’m going to go back to curiosity and empathy. Really, really understand the audience that you’re dealing with and anticipate those needs beforehand.”
