> That same handicap I see borne today by those people who spend their university years reading English literature — scarcely a degree subject at all and about as rigorous a discipline as music criticism

Harsh but true. For many of us in our 30s and 40s, our parents came from a generation which considered all university subjects to be equal and which encouraged their children to just "study whatever they want" at University. A reminder that they are wrong in today's world (have been wrong for a quarter of a century).