RE: [tlug] Speaking of computer usage ....

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Kenneth M Burling Jr writes:

 > Professional means someone that does something as a profession.

Precisely.  "Professions" as conventionally thought of are represented
by the medical profession and the legal profession.  Both of which
prominently feature ethical commitments as requirement of membership,
specifically to keeping up with the state of the art and acting in a
clients' interest.

It's a kind of euphemism to call somebody a professional merely
because they get paid.  The difference between a professional athlete
and an amateur athlete is that the former is obligated to perform on
demand at a certain level and to attempt to improve his capabilities
by a contract enforceable in court, not that he's paid to do it
(although that pay is of course part of the contract).  This
difference is the same as the difference between a whore and a slut.
The former is a professional (at least when a free lance rather than a
slave) because of a commitment to satisfying the customer; the latter
is not because he's only interested in satisfying himself.

In other words, I'm using "professional" as the antonym of
"unprofessional", rather than as a synonym for "paid", which is a
perfectly good four-letter Anglo-Saxon word.

 > Ironically, what you described is more fitting to the definition of
 > Amateur, someone who does something for the love of it.

Not at all.  An amateur is an amateur precisely because they do not
accept responsibility for the consequences of their actions.  See
GPLv2 sections 11-12 for a canonical example of the way amateurs
accept responsibility in principle.

Nor is amateur synonymous with craftsman.  Especially in education I
know many craftsmen who now hate their vocation because they accepted
pay to do it.  They are true professionals.

Nevertheless, amateurs often take far more responsible actions than
paid practitioners.  The difference between amateurs and professionals
is that the latter are expected to do so as part of a contract or on
demand of a client.

The magic of open source software is quite apparent when you consider
how the aggregate of random responsible actions under voluntary
coordination is something as reliable (ie, responsible on demand) as
the Linux kernel.

 > Believe me, I know plenty of professionals that know squat about
 > their job.  :P

Sure, but there would be no loss of meaning in that sentence if it
were written "Believe me, I know plenty of /paid practitioners/ that
know squat about their job."  I think it's pointless to use
"professional" in contexts where it doesn't have the meaning
"practicing as a profession".