Uses of logic

Uses of logic

My daughter-in-law, who is now working at one of the banks in
Jakarta, studied civil engineering in Bandung, after which she
did a two-year stint in banking in the United States.

One day I said to her: "It seems to me that when you finished
your senior high school, you did not seem to know or you were not
convinced what sort of career to choose. If you had only chosen
economics after your senior year you would have been a more
accomplished banker. Don't you think it is a waste of time going
through five years of study in order to get your degree in civil
engineering?"

She replied: "You are not quite right, dad. The five years are
not wasted because a person who is strong in mathematics is also
strong in logic. So, a person who is strong in logic has no
difficulty in learning rote subjects, but it is not the other way
round."

There is some truth in what she said. I read in Review
magazine, March 5, that the incumbent president and the newly
elected prime minister of the People's Republic of China both
graduated from a university in Shanghai and both majored in
electrical engineering. The prime minister was given the nickname
Economic Csar for his five-year stint as minister of finance.

A. DJUANA

Jakarta