Your post is mostly good, but I question your claim that majoring in English discourages conformity. My impression is that English departments reward conformity to a set of norms that somewhat conflicts with mainstream norms. I can imagine this being a valuable signal for unpopular professions.
This is a good point, but I’m not sure how to productively integrate it into my discussion of conformity yet. It seems like the higher level point this points to is that conformity exists along many only partially interacting axes (in this example, the type of conformity being an English major shows is different but not *entirely* different from the type of conformity being an Economics major shows).
Unfortunately, going from a one-dimensional model of less to more conforming to a multi-dimensional one where you can conform along many axes makes this even harder to discuss and investigate… To do so, I suspect I’d need to narrow down my investigation to one industry within which conformity mostly varies along a single dimension.
I think this conundrum goes away once you recognize that employers are looking for signals of conformity/conscientiousness _AND_ for signals of other capabilities. Degrees in English and Economics may both show the ability to understand and follow ambiguous social rules, but Economics _ALSO_ shows some ability in math.
And, of course, you then run into the problem you state—employers are looking for different specific dimensions of conformity, creativity-within-bounds, and technical aptitude.
Your post is mostly good, but I question your claim that majoring in English discourages conformity. My impression is that English departments reward conformity to a set of norms that somewhat conflicts with mainstream norms. I can imagine this being a valuable signal for unpopular professions.
This is a good point, but I’m not sure how to productively integrate it into my discussion of conformity yet. It seems like the higher level point this points to is that conformity exists along many only partially interacting axes (in this example, the type of conformity being an English major shows is different but not *entirely* different from the type of conformity being an Economics major shows).
Unfortunately, going from a one-dimensional model of less to more conforming to a multi-dimensional one where you can conform along many axes makes this even harder to discuss and investigate… To do so, I suspect I’d need to narrow down my investigation to one industry within which conformity mostly varies along a single dimension.
I think this conundrum goes away once you recognize that employers are looking for signals of conformity/conscientiousness _AND_ for signals of other capabilities. Degrees in English and Economics may both show the ability to understand and follow ambiguous social rules, but Economics _ALSO_ shows some ability in math.
And, of course, you then run into the problem you state—employers are looking for different specific dimensions of conformity, creativity-within-bounds, and technical aptitude.