[leptons]

>Programmers being analogous to wizards or martial artists made more sense back when one used to need to train years or decades to become one.

You can be a shitty wizard with only one year of training, same goes for programmers.

[amar1729]

that's kind of exactly OP's point. you can get hired and call yourself a "programmer" after a year of training today ... that was not true in quite the same way 30/40 years ago. and we're in agreement that someone with a year of training is probably not all that good.

[leptons]

>you can get hired and call yourself a "programmer" after a year of training today

That might be true 3 or 4 years ago, but I find that difficult to believe in the current job market. All the programming jobs that have come across my screen lately require a 4-year CS degree. Companies aren't hiring noobs lately. They're laying off more than hiring.