site banner
PaperclipPerfector  17d ago (text post)   2201 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for June 19, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

2
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

So I'm a software engineer at a no-name startup for nearly 5 years. And recently I suddenly have an interest in learning law. Has anyone gotten on this path or have opinions about this? I suppose in my fantasy future, I would be doing appellate law and someday argue Supreme Court cases, but everything I read up shows that law is a high-stress, singular life. What are pros and cons here? What are things that should encourage me and what are things that should discourage me? If someone wants to pour a basin of water over my head on this whole romantic notion please feel free.

Been there. Did great on the LSAT and went to law school on the cheap. The analysis of law as a framework in need of optimization is indeed quite interesting - compelling, even. However, I discovered that there's just not much room in the industry for people specifically interested in those things, and the most probable path was one of reading and writing an unfathomable volume of extremely dull paperwork nobody will care or even know about, something I doubted I could motivate myself to enjoy or even do. Criminal law was at least more dramatic and frequently had the potential to wrap in constitutional arguments, but didn't pay well and necessitated dealing with a lot of scumbags. By the third year I had pretty good idea that a legal career was not going to be for me and finished out my stint in law school with an "America Hates Lawyers" bumper sticker on my beater car. In the end, I went back to my childhood passion and went into IT (specializing in legal applications), and found it to be a challenging, interesting, reasonably low-stress career.

Thanks. How was the ROI in terms of a law degree for you even though you're not on that path? Did you pass the bar?

I did not take the bar exam, though it is not required in my state to practice law if you graduate in good standing. The ROI was, I would say, roughly neutral. I do think it benefited my career and I met some interesting people, at the cost of depressed earnings for three years.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats