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Re:When arts die, they turn into hobbies by jdmichal on Wednesday January 28, 2015 @06:40PM (#8963307)
> Perhaps some of that audience can appreciate the difference between a good basket and a bad one. That does not require that they be a practitioner of basket-weaving themselves.

This is actually pretty close to how I personally define a "professional": A professional is someone whose work can only be judged by other professionals of the same domain.

Obvious failure modes are exempted. Anyone can tell you about a bad bridge after it has failed. But it would take a bridge engineer to tell you that before it fails.

Re:When arts die, they turn into hobbies by noblethrasher on Wednesday January 28, 2015 @11:09PM (#8964283)
> Anyone can tell you about a bad bridge after it has failed. But it would take a bridge engineer to tell you that before it fails.

Right, especially since bridge engineers don't produce bridges, but rather produce designs for bridges, the quality of which can only be judged by other bridge engineers.

I like your definition.