[halflings]

RE:publishing through O'Reilly, that's hardly a proof of anything. There are some horrible books published through O'Reilly.

Here's an example, from internet deep learning celebrity Siraj Raval: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Decentralized-Applications-Harnessi...

(not denying any of the credentials you quoted in your comment though, just responding to that particular point)

[inmygarage]

(edited w last sentence)

It is proof that she wrote a book.

To present an analogy about Susan Fowler with "if a journalist with no experience..." is to present an analogy that is factually incorrect regarding her experience.

If a person created an open-source project on nights and weekends that received industry-wide acclaim, regardless of day job, he/she would most certainly be getting job offers.

[aaron-lebo]

Writing a book does not make you a journalist. It makes you an author. Not that it's not impressive, but it's not proof of experience as a journalist.

They are different jobs. You can write a book without doing any investigative reporting, but it would be hard for a journalist to do so. Siraj Raval might be a published author, but he still has next to no experience being a journalist.

Here's the link in case anyone is interested:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Production-Ready-Microservices-Stan...

[humanrebar]

There are good points to keeping Pulitzers for full time investigative reporters. But I'm not comfortable reserving the word "journalist" for a professional caste. The U.S. Constitution recognizes that written speech is an inalienable right. I think language and culture should as well. That is, a journalist is someone who decides to write about topical things.

So I think writing a topical piece does make you a journalist, though perhaps not one qualified for prestigious awards.