I would argue that a good developer has spent many years learning and perfect their art, more so than any residency. Over the last 25 years have been continual

I would argue that a good developer has spent many years learning and perfect their art, more so than any residency. Over the last 25 years have been continually learning, reading papers and journals from CS and mathematics, as well as online sources. I suspect most developers need to spend time at least reading and honing their skills across their career. To be fair many doctors read medical journals and may attend seminars. The difference between a doctor, lawyer vs a programmer is that a programmer emerges from a computer science program in a "larval stage". Most fresh graduates have very little experience in knowing how to structure code at the level of a senior software engineer. There are years ahead to, maybe, get to the point of mastery. The professional fields, in particular Doctors, require that the residency graduate is more or less fully "baked" and can perform their role without error. That the residency is grueling is just an artifact of the way the profession organizes itself. Personally I think it is dangerous to require doctors to run long shifts. It is almost more of a test of physical fortitude. There is the full gamut of intelligence and diligence in the medical community, just as in the software engineering community. Does a grueling qualification versus lifelong learning in other areas make one profession more valuable or not, I don't think so. As others have stated, economics has more to do with supply and demand.