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Comment by woah

11 years ago

Let us keep the sacred arts secret, brothers.

EDIT: Just being sarcastic. You are clearly incompetent, coasting along in your job, and afraid of someone with 6 months of experience being better than you.

8 comments

woah

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thrwwy5  11 years ago

Seems to have worked well enough for doctors and lawyers. They're unionized (through the AMA and ABA), upper-class professionals who command much more respect from the general public than we do, and whereas our salaries tend to max out at around $150k, theres can easily exceed $500k (in the case of medical specialists or law firm partners).

  • cfeduke  11 years ago

    Hmm. Yeah, I don't know. Its possible to make substantially more than $150K as a high school drop out software engineer. And of course there is these days a cash out option for some.

    I'm okay with giving respect to someone who spends 7 years in school - 4 + 3 for law school, or more in the case of doctors, to learn to be professionals in their field. And I have no qualms with what they make either.

  • dragonwriter  11 years ago

    The AMA and ABA aren't labor unions; outside of government service -- where programmers are also often unionized, too -- doctors and lawyers generally don't have labor unions.

    • thrwwy5  11 years ago

      How exactly are they not unions? They lobby for legislation to erect barriers to entry to reduce competition and secure higher wages for their members. The ABA was actually the target of an anti-trust investigation by the Justice Department that resulted in them pleading guilty and paying a fine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Bar_Association#Antitr...

      The AMA (and AAMC, and the licensing boards) should be dealt with the same way, ideally even more harshly.

      All your post did was underline just how effective these professions are relative to programmers at securing higher incomes and greater prestige and shaping their public perception.

      2 replies →

  • rwallace  11 years ago

    Everything I've heard about the lives of doctors and lawyers says that by and large (discounting the handful of percent of outliers) those professions make living on welfare or working at McDonald's for minimum wage look like brilliant career moves. I wouldn't look to them for models of how to do things.

    I do, mind you, think it is a good idea to encourage programmers to improve their negotiating skills and understand a little about business and politics.