Conferences, Clarity, and Smokescreens – Infrequently Noted

In a 1912 commencement address, the great American jurist and antitrust reformer Louis Brandeis hoped that a different occupation would aspire to service:The peculiar characteristics of a profession as distinguished from other occupations, I take to be these:

• First. A profession is an occupation for which the necessary preliminary training is intellectual in character, involving knowledge and to some extent learning, as distinguished from mere skill.
• Second. It is an occupation which is pursued largely for others and not merely for one’s self.
• Third. It is an occupation in which the amount of financial return is not the accepted measure of success.

In the same talk, Brandeis named Engineering a discipline already worthy of a professional distinction. Most software development can’t share the benefit of the doubt, not matter how often “engineer” appears on CVs and business cards. If React Summit and co. are anything to go by, frontend is mired in the same ethical tar pit that cause Wharton, Kellogg, and Stanford grads to reliably experience midlife crises.3

Source: Conferences, Clarity, and Smokescreens – Infrequently Noted