Law is all about gatekeepers - you need the right degree, have to pass the bar, then work your way up through established hierarchies. Classic professional cred

Law is all about gatekeepers - you need the right degree, have to pass the bar, then work your way up through established hierarchies. Classic professional credentialism where they keep access locked down tight. Programming smashed that whole model - you can learn online, jump into open source, and prove yourself through what you actually build rather than what credentials you have. Law school teaches you to think in precedent and interpretation within whatever frameworks already exist. Programming culture is way more about experimenting and building completely new stuff from the ground up. One field rewards you for working within the system, the other rewards you for tearing it down and rebuilding it better. Sure, both require logical thinking, but they use it in totally different ways that create completely different professional mindsets. What sucks for programming is that because of all this, it gets seen as something trivial - especially now with AI writing applications that technically work but have zero architectural thought behind them. They'll do exactly what you asked for and nothing more, then fall apart when you actually need them to scale. Finding any programmer is easy these days, finding a good one isn't - it's gotten way harder with AI around and the Dunning-Kruger effect is everywhere in the field. The ML community hit this wall too. Say you're an AI engineer and people immediately lump you in with those "pay-me-to-talk" types going on about "quantum fields and vibrations to boost your workforce energy and productivity." "I'm a lawyer" still gets you respect. "I'm an AI/Software Engineer" gets you grouped with the snake oil salespeople. That disparity just makes the whole thing worse.