Why Is a 19th-Century Prussian General Showing Up in My AI Conversations?

Jake made a point in on of his videos that I haven't stopped thinking about:

People rarely ask how the liberal arts apply to AI, even though they're often what help us navigate the fuzzy problems where there isn't a single objectively correct answer.

As a computational linguist, that got my attention.

Someone recently asked me if computational linguistics was "even relevant anymore." That's like asking a structural engineer if buildings are still a thing.

So I'm curious:

If you could require every aspiring ICM practitioner to deeply study one (or two) disciplines outside of AI and software engineering, what would you choose?

Some candidates:

Philosophy
Linguistics
Psychology
History
Political theory
Anthropology
Economics
Literature
Rhetoric
Art history
Architecture
Music theory

More importantly:

What mental model from that field has fundamentally changed the way you build AI systems?

My current research agenda consists of figuring out why Helmuth von Moltke the Elder seems to have more relevant opinions about AI execution than most LinkedIn influencers.

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Why Is a 19th-Century Prussian General Showing Up in My AI Conversations?