TITLE: You Have to Learn That It's All Beautiful
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: December 28, 2017  8:46 AM
DESC: 
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BODY:
In
<A HREF="https://heleo.com/conversation-the-one-key-trait-that-einstein-da-vinci-and-steve-jobs-had-in-common/17410/">
   this interview</A>
with Adam Grant, Walter Jacobson talks about some of the things
he learned while writing biographies of Benjamin Franklin,
Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, and Leonardo da Vinci.  A common
theme is that all four were curious and interested in a wide
range of topics.  Toward the end of the interview, Jacobson
says:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
 We of humanities backgrounds are always doing the lecture,
 like, "We need to put the 'A' in 'STEM', and you've got to
 learn the arts and the humanities."  And you get big
 applause when you talk about the importance of that.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
 But we also have to meet halfway and learn the beauty of
 math.  Because people tell me, "I can't believe somebody
 doesn't know the difference between Mozart and Haydn, or
 the difference between Lear and Macbeth."  And I say,
 "Yeah, but do you know the difference between a resistor
 and a transistor?  Do you know the difference between an
 integral and a differential equation?"  They go, "Oh no, I
 don't do math, I don't do science."  I say, "Yeah, but you
 know what, an integral equation is just as beautiful as a
 brush stroke on the Mona Lisa."  You've got to learn that
 they're all beautiful.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

Appreciating that beauty made Leonardo a better artist and
Jobs a better technologist.  I would like for the students
who graduate from our CS program to know some literature,
history, and art and appreciate their beauty.  I'd also
like for the students who graduate from our university
with degrees in literature, history, art, and especially
education to have some knowledge of calculus, the Turing
machine, and recombinant DNA, and appreciate their beauty.
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