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by hoopleheaded
2900 days ago
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I do not think your arguments apply to The Economist. >And maybe these people should find actual productive jobs, there are enough enthusiasts working for free and reporting stuff. Whatever it is you do to make money, I would wager there is someone who is enthusiastic and doing it for free. Depending on the time dedication and skill set involved they may or may not be doing it as competently as you. |
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True, I was responding to a broader point.
> Whatever it is you do to make money, I would wager there is someone who is enthusiastic and doing it for free. Depending on the time dedication and skill set involved they may or may not be doing it as competently as you.
Also true, however as a programmer vs. journalist there are several VERY important differences:
- Many people tried doing programming for free. It's not sustainable. It's too much work, too much details, too much legacy from other teams, too much documentation work necessary, too big a burden to onboard new members, requires too much knowledge and know-how. I realize part of this applies to professional journalists, but it's definitely much easier for them compared to us. They don't need to learn X languages and X^2 frameworks before they go out the door interviewing people. And no, 4 years in university is NOTHING compared to what us the tech people do for education, almost every single day.
- Photographing a potential crime or a PR mishap with your smartphone, then sprinting for two blocks, and then uploading it to Twitter is only two orders of magnitude easier than programming, sorry. Your comparison does not hold up here at all.
- Programming, being an architect or a lawyer, and a bunch of such professions require a lot of skill and training. Most journalists I've known get by just fine by being insolent and knowing how to piss someone off enough so they spill the beans and give them a sensational story. Again, this is orders of magnitude easier (and requires much less time!) than refactoring a huge business system that is barely holding up and urgently needs reviving.
I was not saying that any enthusiastic amateur is as good as a professional investigative journalist, by the way. I was saying that AT LARGE the world provides enough accidental reporting so as to make most traditional journalistic reporting redundant. That was my main point.
I was also not saying all journalists are useless. Some are very influential and important. I did say "most".
As a final point, I have not ever found myself having to twist code or documentation so as not to piss my employer's benefactor -- and that happens a lot to the journalists. So IMO most are useless due to them being powerless and always at the mercy of the powers of the day.