F*** you, human

In the column by Emma Höngens in the Intermania, about the purpose of P&T. She said that people often asked her: “What is the purpose of a combination of Psychology and Technology”, and perhaps even more aggressively: “Why would anyone want to study this when you could just do a normal major??? Something we all know like physics, math or, if you’re really desperate, construction engineering???!!??”. While reading I could only imagine a bewildered and frantic look on her face, releasing small clouds of steam out of her ear with every typed word.

That might just be me, but I have three words for you: do not despair.

It is tempting when studying at a university, and a technical one at that, to believe that regardless of your discipline, you can reason, calculate or design your way out of complex problems. While this is true for challenges that require a fixed outcome, which a majority of engineering problems need, things get messy when you involve those pesky humans in whatever you’re doing. The little shits.

When you go out in the real world, you quickly see, like I did, that you need to collaborate with, design, and work for these unpredictable, interactive, wonderful, frustrating beings. With their countless emotions, preferences, and complex interactions that are sometimes irrational, sometimes wonderfully unexpected, but always interesting.

Wouldn’t it be handy if you knew something about them?