Tech or Something Else? Why Not Both?

Talking to high school students, one of the most common things I hear is in the form "I really like [STEM field] but I have a passion for [arts/humanities field]."  As in, "I really love science, but I'm really into music" or "I love math, but I really want to study French."  College catalogs and job descriptions conspire to give people the impression that you have to pick just one field, and nothing could be further from the truth.

Technology touches nearly every aspect of society. Everything from advertising to zoo-keeping has benefited from technology.  The innovations that enable game-changing improvements often come from people who have a passion and experience in two or more fields. Combining substantive knowledge in one area with technical know-how creates a very powerful combination.

The relationship between art and science is not new.  Leonardo da Vinci was one of the Renaissance's most prolific artists and one of its most creative engineers.  His study of anatomy, which began in an attempt to become a better artist, helped advance the state of medicine at the time and for centuries that followed.

At my alma mater, students majoring in computer science are required to get a minor in another field.  Although it is permissible to get a minor in a closely related field such as mathematics, many students choose to meet this requirement by minoring in loosely related fields like cognitive science or in largely unrelated fields such as art.  By studying another field in addition to computer science, students are able to bring insights from the other field to computing, and to use the power of computing to advance the other field. Human-computer interaction is a combination of design, cognitive science, and computer science.  Speech recognition is a combination of computer science and linguistics. So-called "big data" methods have transformed countless other fields, including politics, medicine, and sports.

Having a background in two distinct fields opens your eyes to connections that those who concentrate in only one of those fields are likely to miss.  So if you're thinking about abandoning a STEM field to pursue another passion, consider doing both.