We don't have those kinds of beliefs for doctors and lawyers in part because the stakes are different -- a mistake in our profession usually means something bre

We don't have those kinds of beliefs for doctors and lawyers in part because the stakes are different -- a mistake in our profession usually means something breaks silently and nobody ever notices or is worse for it. Or maybe a site goes down or a user sees a strange error message or an app is slow. On the other hand, mistakes from doctors and lawyers can ruin or destroy lives and cause actual suffering. There are exceptions in our industry where the stakes are that high, but even in those settings there are often technical and operational controls to minimize risk and allow newer folks to gain experience safely And it does seem that programming and some actionable amount of CS can be learned in some months. Maybe the same is true for lawyering and medical practice but I doubt it Anyway, I find this attitude mostly to be condescending and pointless gatekeeping. It turns out that a CS degree doesn't imply that someone is a strong problem solver, architect, communicator, leader or has deep technical skills, as a college dropout who barely graduated from high school who has now mentored lots of folks with CS degrees