3 ms·

How do you hire an architect to design your house? Pick a doctor? Pick a lawyer?

by trimbo 6y ago

SllX 6y ago
That’s a bad faith question asked in an attempt to setup a straw man argument and you know it, and I know it, so cut the crap. Worry about the guy writing software for all the nuclear power plants we’re not building, not the guy who makes webshit, word processors and compilers for a living. Architects, Doctors and Lawyers are closer to one extreme, you can make as strong a case for licensing them as you can for not licensing them. Software engineers are vocationally with the florists, where licensing is less a matter of ethics or workmanship or safety as it is an artificial government sanctioned means of preventing new competition from entering the market, or only allowing it in a controlled and revocable manner.
- pixl97 6y ago
  Writers of open source software are winding up to one day spin in their graves reading the comments of the authoritarians demanding software licensing in here.
  - SllX 6y ago
    Agreed. There is no professional class so enlightened that it won’t use whatever means available, governmental or otherwise, to insulate itself from competitive pressures.
Aerroon 6y ago
Pay a huge amount of money. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, we have an incredibly expensive healthcare system, a legal system where deeper pockets have a large advantage, and a housing crisis. All I need to make a website is to know how to do it. To build a house I need to comply with an endless list of regulations that are essentially intended to make me unable to do so. To buy an asthma inhaler (insert medicine here) I must pay a doctor to write me a prescription. It doesn't matter whether I know what I need and how much. I must pay for it. Lawyering I can do on my own for myself though. Edit: I'm not saying that all of this is necessarily bad, but I just couldn't resist when you mentioned those 3. They're not great examples, because the ethics there are about protecting the person receiving the service. In software development you rarely build something for a specific human individual.
throw_m239339 6y ago
This is different. Anybody can create a website and thus the next Facebook/Twitter/TikTok. As far as I know, I don't need a permit to build a website. Requiring one would stifle freedom of speech. On the other hand you bet that if you work on missile guidance/plane software you'll need some sort of certification. Your comparison just doesn't work. And there are already laws in place that any website dealing with user data or any sort of ecommerce must follow.
alacombe 6y ago
> How do you hire an architect to design your house? Depends where you live and how much local architects have been regulatory captured the housing market. Other than that, building a house is easy.

How do you hire an architect to design your house? Pick a doctor? Pick a lawyer?

by trimbo 6y ago

How do you hire an architect to design your house? Pick a doctor? Pick a lawyer?

SllX 6y ago

That’s a bad faith question asked in an attempt to setup a straw man argument and you know it, and I know it, so cut the crap. Worry about the guy writing software for all the nuclear power plants we’re not building, not the guy who makes webshit, word processors and compilers for a living. Architects, Doctors and Lawyers are closer to one extreme, you can make as strong a case for licensing them as you can for not licensing them. Software engineers are vocationally with the florists, where licensing is less a matter of ethics or workmanship or safety as it is an artificial government sanctioned means of preventing new competition from entering the market, or only allowing it in a controlled and revocable manner.

pixl97 6y ago
Writers of open source software are winding up to one day spin in their graves reading the comments of the authoritarians demanding software licensing in here.
- SllX 6y ago
  Agreed. There is no professional class so enlightened that it won’t use whatever means available, governmental or otherwise, to insulate itself from competitive pressures.

Aerroon 6y ago

Pay a huge amount of money. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, we have an incredibly expensive healthcare system, a legal system where deeper pockets have a large advantage, and a housing crisis. All I need to make a website is to know how to do it. To build a house I need to comply with an endless list of regulations that are essentially intended to make me unable to do so. To buy an asthma inhaler (insert medicine here) I must pay a doctor to write me a prescription. It doesn't matter whether I know what I need and how much. I must pay for it. Lawyering I can do on my own for myself though. Edit: I'm not saying that all of this is necessarily bad, but I just couldn't resist when you mentioned those 3. They're not great examples, because the ethics there are about protecting the person receiving the service. In software development you rarely build something for a specific human individual.

throw_m239339 6y ago

This is different. Anybody can create a website and thus the next Facebook/Twitter/TikTok. As far as I know, I don't need a permit to build a website. Requiring one would stifle freedom of speech. On the other hand you bet that if you work on missile guidance/plane software you'll need some sort of certification. Your comparison just doesn't work. And there are already laws in place that any website dealing with user data or any sort of ecommerce must follow.

alacombe 6y ago

> How do you hire an architect to design your house? Depends where you live and how much local architects have been regulatory captured the housing market. Other than that, building a house is easy.