When I tell people I am a double major in Computer Science and History, most are dumbfounded. What do those two have in common? I usually smirk and respond with a simple, “Not much.” The truth is they require a similar mind. A person needs an analytical mind to solve the problems encountered in computer science as well as to get to the bottom of an historical event. The most common thing I see is the constant search for patterns. Even in analyzing the two majors, I am looking for patterns. When writing for either discipline, I am required to be concise and to the point while backing up what I say. It is not about writing a fictional story for a literature class. The required documentation can seem overwhelming at times, but without it, the whole work means nothing. Writing a blog is a joke compared to a research paper. Did I mention both majors require their students to write research papers? I actually feel mildly ashamed of the lack of links at the bottom of my blogs to provide further reading. My computer science head, Eugene Wallingford, is much better about doing this on his blog. As you can see, I am not only learning from him in the classroom.
Now that I have spent all that effort describing the similarities between the two fields, I will tell you I am not a double major because the two complement each other. I am in history because a person, regardless of where they are going in life, can learn a lot from studying history. Some might think it attracts people who like a good story. These are the people we weed out with research papers. As colorful as the lives of past individuals and their deeds may be, spending a night in the library or locked away in your dorm room has nothing of the same exhiliration. It is the sort of excitement found by getting to the bottom of things. The detective has this excitement when he solves a case. A computer scientist experiences a similar euphoria upon solving a difficult problem. Still, the real value in studying history comes when taking a step back to look at the world around me. What are the recent trends? Where have things come from? Where are things going? What does this mean for me? What does this mean for you? What does this mean for us? Was the recent legislation a good idea? Does the education model universities are built on still have a solid foundation? Will that remain to be true fifty years in the future? What about the economy? What is the story with world politics? If you ask me, I will tell you a historian is the best discipline from which a United States President should come. If you want someone making important decisions, having the foundation for thinking critically about what led up to the decision and what might happen based on the choice, I choose a historian who has spent his life studying such climactic decisions.
In case you have not realized it yet, I have created an entirely new website to host my blog among other things. For those apalled by my choice in look-and-feel, do not worry. I am in the process of developing alternative themes which you will be able to select for use on your computer.
If you are using an RSS reader to track my updates, I suggest you update the url now. While the RSS readers are likely still working due to a redirect I implemented, you will want to change it from http://blog.13throse.us/atom.xml to http://www.marshmallowswisdom.com/feed/ before too long. I do not have a timeframe on when I will be removing the redirect, but I reserve the right to do it any time after July. The same is true for any bookmarks, et cetera. Anything pointing to http://blog.13throse.us should be changed to http://www.marshmallowswisdom.com or http://www.marshmallowswisdom.com/blog/ depending on your preference.
I will be updating the site quite frequently here hopefully throughout the summer to get it up to speed. Please note, I will be taking a short break from all the work I put in this past weekend to get it up and running. If you find something that is not working, you would like to see different, or simply a suggestion, please email me at shawn.sparks@marshmallowswisdom.com or post a comment. Thank you and I hope you enjoy.