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Unpopular take: I actually liked my gen ed requirements more than my major classes
Last semester at State U, I had to take a philosophy 101 class for a gen ed credit and it was way more interesting than any of my computer science lectures. The professor actually made us argue about real stuff instead of just memorizing code syntax. Anyone else find their required courses more engaging than their major?
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aarons3617d ago
Yeah, that bit about "defending your own ideas" really hit me. A lot of people talk about gen eds being a nice break from the grind, but I think there's something bigger going on. When you're deep in a major like comp sci or engineering, you're mostly learning how to do something right by someone else's rules. Philosophy forces you to think about why you believe what you believe, and that's a totally different muscle. It's like the difference between following a blueprint and designing a house from scratch. Maybe the real problem is that major classes should borrow some of that open-ended argument style instead of just being a straight line to a test. That kind of thinking might make people better at their actual jobs in the long run, not just better at taking tests.
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Honestly, what was it about the philosophy class that hooked you? Was it the professor pushing you to defend your own ideas, or just that it felt less like busywork compared to coding assignments? I had a similar thing with a sociology gen ed where we analyzed stuff like why people conform in groups, and it made me wonder why my major classes didn't have that kind of real-world connection. Did the philosophy class change how you see your comp sci stuff, or was it just a nice break from the grind?
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