Why Geeks Need to Know How to Write

I had no idea how to start this blog until yesterday when I was on the phone with my best friend. The discussion started off how any regular teenage girls' might, gossiping about mutual acquaintances and what was new in our love lives. Then we started talking about school and I was telling her about the amazing things I was learning in my elective this term, Scientific Revolutions, then she told me about her electives in Greek and Roman history. At one point she said something that had never really occurred to me. She said that she was happy she was given the opportunity to take these electives now, before becoming very focused in one field of study. Before that I had seen breadth requirements as something the university made us take for no good reason. It is, however, it's not-so-secret way of making sure that the students coming out are, if even slightly, cultured individuals. I believe the way to achieve this is to have some knowledge on a variety of subjects. No one ever said, "Hey, look at that person that knows a lot about that one thing, they're so cultured!". Now you may be wondering what this has to do with why a geek should be able to write, but it is very relatable. In general, people have this idea that a geek is very good at one particular thing, such as computer programming or playing video games, usually something without much of an element of face-to-face interaction. Having a focus is great since it enables you to put your all in a discipline and therefore be the best that you can at it. Spending 100% of your time on one area does not allow you to enrich your life with other subjects. There is a certain social aspect to writing that "geeks" tend to lack. What I mean by this is when you write, you write to an audience, and need to write appropriately to that audience. A person that lacks good social skills will find it difficult to appease to a certain person or group of people when they write. A cultured individual will find it easier to interact with others based on their ability to talk on various subjects since they have some knowledge in them, this develops their social skills. Communicating, and ultimately writing, is a part of any job. In computer science you need to write code and reports on this code that can easily be understood by superiors or coworkers. Having the ability to write, an area outside of your field of study, is directly linked to being a well-rounded individual and therefore the likelihood to succeed on your desired path.