Episode Date: 05-14-2025
About This Episode
Welcome to a conversation that gets at the heart of true polytechnic education: the liberal arts need STEM as much as STEM programs need the liberal arts. The Christian Polytechnic University is called to embody this balanced truth. We know it. We live it. And our guest today gets it. Join us for a conversation between Dr. Steven D. Mason, President of LeTourneau University, and the New York Times best-selling author Scott Hartley. His 2017 book, The Fuzzy and the Techie, speaks to the reasons why broad based Liberal Arts education actually prepares us better for a machine-led world than STEM alone. And his work often involves helping colleges & universities design educational programs that blend the humanities and technology. Get ready to learn more about why, well, we’re built for this.
Key Takeaways
- Liberal arts are not just relevant, but essential in our tech-driven world.
- Innovation thrives when both the Fuzzy (liberal arts) and the Techie (STEM) are integrated. In this interview, Hartley references several pioneers in the tech industry excelling because of their background in liberal arts–like theater, philosophy, theology, even ballet.
- Curiosity needs to be cultivated.
- Technology is not neutral, it is shaped by the people who build it. So the liberal arts instill virtues and foster critical thinking.
- As the Christian Polytechnic University, we are in a unique position in forming thoughtful, ethical tech leaders.
In our recent episode of the Built for This podcast, we had the privilege of welcoming Scott Hartley, a venture capitalist, a global speaker, Stanford and Columbia alum, and author of The Fuzzy and The Techie, to talk about the vital role of the humanities in our increasingly technological world.
His book The Fuzzy and the Techie has resonated widely, including here at LeTourneau University. The book, which originated from Hartley’s experiences at Stanford where students were informally divided into “fuzzies” (liberal arts majors) and “techies” (STEM majors), challenges the prevailing notion that only techies drive innovation. Instead, Hartley argues that the fuzzies are equally critical to designing impactful technologies.
When we look at the liberal arts holistically, the liberal arts are “freeing the mind” and “stretching the mind”. There is a false dichotomy of humanities on one side and the sciences on the other and which one is going to win between the two of them. It is about, however, how do these different threads pull on the mind in different ways that unlock an exploration and curiosity that we have? That is the key characteristic and skill required to interface with technology.
