Ask HN: HN supported initiative to transition ageing developers to legal?
>It turns out that regulations are made largely by old lawyers, who are more connected and charismatic than smart and practical, and haven't operated in the real-world for decades. (user: dokein)
Which went like this:
>Maybe that's the career path for aging programmers. Get a law degree. (user: jonhendry18)
Ageism in tech is a huge problem that is widely discussed here as is the disconnect between technology and law makers. It is in fact the perfect intersection which will result in the maximum value add impact for ageing technologists. Given that HN is frequented by many ageing developers and also quite a few lawyers there is an opportunity to create a community supported initiative to make this easier for all involved. I don't quite have ideas on what this would look like so I have created this post to start an open forum discussion where we can collect ideas and see if there is an appetite to make this happen.
Please share you industry/experience specific or general insights, ideas and thoughts.
[0]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17449457
16 comments
[ 5.2 ms ] story [ 59.6 ms ] threadWow. That means you started in 1968. Professionally or as a kid? Hats off to you sir!
1) As others have mentioned the transition from engineer to lawyer doesn't make much sense for most of the population. Right now, the most influential law schools in the US (think Harvard and Yale Law) cost 60k+/year to attend for 3 years. Once you're finished, the typical engineer will see a salary dropoff along with a major increase in work. This is probably not the way forward in the US.
So let's take another look at the problem we're trying to solve. To restate the problem, regulation/law is made by those who are typically out of touch resulting in regulations that are often actively harmful. We in the tech industry would like to be involved or influential enough in the tech industry to be able to prevent these "bad" regulations from being created in the first place.
Ok, so where does regulation come from? Who do we have to influence? There are two primary sources of regulation, the legislative bodies such as congress and regulatory agencies such as the EPA, FCC and FDA. Secondary sources of regulation are executive orders/actions and the courts (common law courts used by the US and the UK explicitly look at judicial precedent)
There are already several well-known patterns to influence these regulation creators with the patterns in use by industries of every stripe. 1) Funnel more people from tech into careers as either politicians or their staff
To influence regulation created by these there are 3 well-known possibilities. 1) become politicians, 2) lobbying, 3) be an advisor or other person of influence. Option one is definitely a possibility but comes with the downside that many of those that choose this path will be older and out of touch. Option 2 is the one I believe has the easiest path forward. Today Facebook, Google and Microsoft have big lobbying efforts, although they pale in comparison to the lobbying by telecom and big energy. VCs already have informal lobbying they do on certain issues such as immigration and taxes on stock compensation. Grassroots we've seen the ability of tech to organize, especially around net neutrality and SOPA. The tech industry has seen successes, but hasn't been able to sustain it. It could benefit from formal industry-wide lobbying efforts. As for 3, tech could be more active during rule-making sessions and feedback sessions. We need to establish relations with politicians, regulators and their staff.
Nevertheless I transitioned from law to working in IT, because of the salary / career options ( being a successful lawyer is magnitude harder ).
As this seems like a crazy idea, I tend to agree that we need more specialised IT lawyers, understanding what's happening down to the byte. Unfortunately the idea folks are not always lawyers, but mostly politicians and this is quite hard to transition to.