[ktf]

After receiving my BS in computer science I went on to get my MA in film studies. I considered going for the PhD, but decided I didn't really care for the taste of academia I had gotten. (To me, it basically seemed like politics, but without the money.)

When interviewing for engineering positions afterward, my interviewers would often try to put some spin on my MA, like:

"Well, I'll bet an intensive two-year study of film made you a better developer."

To which I'd reply, "No. No it didn't. It was fun though, and I learned a lot. I'd do it again in a heartbeat."

Not everything is about software, and not everything has to be. I didn't spend those years studying film as some oblique exercise in... well, in anything. And the value I gained from the experience can't be measured in dollars. (As cheesy as that sounds...)