for me, my level of annoyance with this depends upon how one chooses to define “writer.” look it up in the dictionary. most primary definitions are “one who writes professionally.” but also “a person who is able to write and has written something.”

i can technically fit both definitions but would never dream of classifying myself strictly as a writer. the date of my birth will get no mention by garrison keillor on “the writer’s almanac.”

there are people who try to impress by calling themselves writers. i don’t understand why this would discredit others who are experienced in the art.

Call yourself whatever you want, folks. It’s the product of the skillset you carry in your head that’s going to be judged in the real world, not the paper that’s framed on your wall.

/rant

The reason I can’t say that I am a lawyer is that I never passed the bar exam. Same goes for doctors. Those are regulated trades. My wife is dealing with a similar situation with massage therapy. Since it is not regulated in Minnesota, anyone can claim to be a massage therapist, regardless of what they know or of their ability. If it was regulated by the State, only those that met the State criteria could call themselves massage therapists.

You can ignore my first paragraph, I just wanted to be contrary with you. 🙂

I’ve seen sys admins who would regularly state “I don’t know anything about computers,” as well as developers who didn’t know what a variable or constant was.

It’s all very annoying, but I pretty much tend to ignore it unless people like that are going to reflect on my performance.

Bitches.