Damon Horowitz Quote

It is no longer just engineers who dominate our technology leadership, because it is no longer the case that computers are so mysterious that only engineers can understand what they are capable of. There is an industry-wide shift toward more "product thinking" in leadership--leaders who understand the social and cultural contexts in which our technologies are deployed.Products must appeal to human beings, and a rigorously cultivated humanistic sensibility is a valued asset for this challenge. That is perhaps why a technology leader of the highest status--Steve Jobs--recently credited an appreciation for the liberal arts as key to his company's tremendous success with their various i-gadgets.

Damon Horowitz

It is no longer just engineers who dominate our technology leadership, because it is no longer the case that computers are so mysterious that only engineers can understand what they are capable of. There is an industry-wide shift toward more "product thinking" in leadership--leaders who understand the social and cultural contexts in which our technologies are deployed.Products must appeal to human beings, and a rigorously cultivated humanistic sensibility is a valued asset for this challenge. That is perhaps why a technology leader of the highest status--Steve Jobs--recently credited an appreciation for the liberal arts as key to his company's tremendous success with their various i-gadgets.

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About Damon Horowitz

Damon Horowitz is a philosophy professor and serial entrepreneur. He is best known for his TED talks on teaching philosophy in prison and the ethics of the technology industry, and for his advocacy for the humanities in the technology industry.Horowitz earned a BA from Columbia University, a MS in Artificial Intelligence from the MIT Media Lab, and a PhD in Philosophy at Stanford University. He began his career in technology, later returning to Stanford to earn a PhD in philosophy.He was a co-founder of the search engine Aardvark, Perspecta, and Novation Biosciences. He was also In-House Philosopher/Director of Engineering at Google.Horowitz teaches courses in philosophy, AI, and cognitive science at NYU, Stanford, Columbia, U Penn, and San Quentin State Prison.Horowitz has served on the Board of Directors of several arts and humanities non-profits, and in 2013 he was elected to the Board of CalHumanities.In 2014, Horowitz founded the non-profit Shakespeare theater company "The Oracular Theatre", and directed their production of Julius Caesar.