
Are Programmers smarter than Lawyers? - guard-of-terra
http://alamar.livejournal.com/349165.html
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ColinWright
What?

    
    
        > What are programmers famous for?
        > Programmers disrupt.
    

What a load of self-pretentious crap. Programmers program.

Some programmers have the desire to launch businesses that will change the
world. For them, programming is one part of a large collection of tools,
abilities, and activities. But just one. The author mentions Paul Graham who
also talks of the requirement for "schlepping" - a critical part of running a
start-up, and nothing to do with programming.

Some programmer will succeed running a business, some will succeed in running
a successful business that makes a lot of money. Some may even succeed in
disrupting and existing market.

But "Programmers disrupt."

Please, spare me.

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gee_totes
This article is full of "What?"s.

In the next section, the claim of lawyers not being able to disrupt is quite
short-sighted. _Brown v. Board of Education_ , _Roe v. Wade_ , _Plessy v.
Ferguson_ , etc. etc. are all court cases, brought by lawyers, that have
caused a significant amount of disruption.

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lutusp
The answer depends on how one defines "smarter". If "smarter" means being able
to organize things that naturally tend to become disorganized, then yes,
programmers are smarter than lawyers.

Programmers thrive by creating local violations of entropy. Lawyers _are_
entropy.

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hackernewbie
Because of my own myopic, self-interestedness I actually do think some
programmers are smarter than most lawyers. But this article is not evidence or
argument of that.

Knowledge wise they are on a par, though having said that you can't be a
lawyer without knowing x > massive amounts of law, and you can be a programmer
(not necessarily a good one) without knowing x amounts about a language,
structures, and low level.

The kicker is abstract/mathmatical knowledge/ability. Lawyers require none. To
my mind abstract problems require the most 'intelligence' as it were. But
again that's personal bias.

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dromidas
How is being disruptive any indication of smartness?

It is the field which enables you to change industry standards, not the people
who populate it.

If anyone is well known as being disruptive I would say it was the scientist.
Science research has a waaaaay longer and more impactful history of being
disruptive to society than anything else in the (recorded) history of mankind.
We programmers are a new breed and are still in our infancy. Programming
technology is still in its respective dark ages.

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will_brown
>Do lawyers get to disrupt? I think they don't.

I could go on ad nauseam, but compare Jim Crow Laws and Plessy v. Ferguson to
Brown v. Board of Education.

A more modern example is the fine disruptive work being done at the EFF.

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error
This is a very stupid question! So I guess you are not a programmer :)

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guard-of-terra
peterwiese if you are reading me, you are hel lbanned and all your comments
are marked [dead].

