Is developer compensation becoming bimodal?

Re:Is developer compensation becoming bimodal? by zebraflask on Friday February 09, 2018 @10:30AM (#16340847)

Agreed. I've done both law and programming. Law school categorically does not even try to teach aspiring lawyers how to practice. The classic curriculum is designed to teach you how to "think like a lawyer." There are exceptions here and there, but if you want practical skills, you have to deliberately look for the handful of seminars and clinics that teach them.

Between learning to program and learning to practice law, once you get past your chosen programming language's syntax and a few core CS concepts - learning to program is much easier.

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Re:Is developer compensation becoming bimodal? by ithkuil on Friday February 09, 2018 @01:27PM (#16342606)

Learning how to do X can be very easy if you accept an arbitrary level of competence as enough to claim "I know how to X".

I have the feeling that a lot of people can believe they have learned to program while all what they did is to go past their chosen programming language syntax and grasped a few core CS concepts.

That's quite a low barrier to entry, but if that's what people mean when they hear the word "programming", then I'd argue that Software Engineering would be a better name for the field we're here comparing with practising law.

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Re:Is developer compensation becoming bimodal? by zebraflask on Friday February 09, 2018 @08:48PM (#16345368)

Don't let the electrical and hardware engineers hear you say that, that'll just open the old debate about whether software engineering is really engineering at all. (Kidding.)

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Re:Is developer compensation becoming bimodal? by zelos on Friday February 09, 2018 @12:04PM (#16341858)

In the UK the practical skills are taught postgraduate in a Legal Practice Course.

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