Who's a pro?

[Mark Levinson <mark -at- MATIS -dot- INGR -dot- COM>]

Pardon me for dating myself, but when one of my classmates back in
high school asked the English teacher, "Is Bob Dylan a poet?"
the teacher said, "Of course Bob Dylan's a poet.  He's a bad poet."

Similarly, anyone who gets paid for their(?) work is doing that work
in a professional capacity.  Whether they(?) are a good professional or
a bad professional is a different question.

We can compliment someone's work by calling it professional, meaning
it is characteristic of what we would expect from a professional-- or
insult it by calling it unprofessional-- regardless of whether the
worker is an actual professional or not.  We can even, confusingly, apply such
characterizations to the worker-- "he's a pro" or "he's unprofessional"--
in a subjective fashion, the way you might say of someone who lives in
New York, according to her behavior, "she's a real New Yorker" or
"she's no New Yorker."

But to say "I'm a professional" if you're not getting paid is to
praise yourself subjectively, not to state an objective fact.

_________________________________________________________________________
 Mark L. Levinson          | E-mail:   mark -at- matis -dot- ingr -dot- com
 Publications Manager      | Voice:    +972-52-584684, ext. 230 (work),
 SEE Technologies Ltd.     |           +972-52-552411 (home)
 Box 544, Herzlia, ISRAEL  | Fax:      +972-52-543917
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
        "Graphical user interfaces make simple things simple
         and complicated things impossible."
                                               - Marty Leisner
-------------------------------------------------------------------------