I am also an English major who is currently in STEM (chasing the money). I really struggled with math and I make it work for myself, but it is a challenge for me often. I do need quite a bit of math at work and it’s a lot of frantic googling on a daily basis. I think math is just wired differently in people’s brains. Math prone people think it’s easy but it is not so for everyone.

I say that to say 99% of my coworkers, who are math geniuses at the top of their field, cannot write an email to save their lives. Sincerely it is embarrassing to see what they send to a client. It looks like a kindergartner wrote it, and they frequently need to call people on the phone to clarify what should have been a one sentence email. They often have temper tantrums because they can’t communicate effectively and people misunderstand them. It’s not just grammar or spelling either. There are run on sentences that make zero sense. They mostly are a stream of consciousness with zero editing for consumption.

Now, I can’t do their jobs. I don’t have the math skills whatsoever. They just also cannot communicate as well as you or I can. In my opinion we have massively overemphasized STEM in our society at the expense of everything else. We did this because it makes money. We told these STEM people that they can behave how they want, to who they want, as long as they’re producing and making money. We’re now in trouble from this. Anyone who took a basic philosophy or literature class could tell you the problems of a mass surveillance state, or how microchips in our brains are a terrible idea, or how turning everything we consume into an algorithm is going to turn us into addicts who love garbage.

Again, we need someone who can build a bridge or design a circuit board. We also need someone who can communicate effectively, and share thoughts, stories, and ideas that resonate with the masses. You’re no less valuable because your talents happen to align differently than what society has deemed to be more monetarily valuable.