Lawyers, Guns, and Money
Faustine
a3495 at cotse.com
Sat Aug 25 14:46:58 PDT 2001
Declan wrote:
On Tue, Aug 21, 2001 at 06:05:04PM -0400, Faustine wrote:
> Great points. If you're looking to make a difference re: cypherpunk and
>pro-libertarian issues and have a scientific and practical streak, why not
>get an advanced degree in policy analysis instead? You get a rock-solid
> grounding in a number of critical disciplines, and put yourself in a
> position to seriously affect policy on the broadest possible stage.
>Alas, the best policy analysts I've seen are lawyers. Folks in DC, at
>least,look down at people who got an easier "policy analysis" degree as
>people who couldn't or didn't want to go to law school.
>-Declan
True, if you don't pick your program carefully, it's entirely too possible
to end up with a nebulous grab bag of an education that doesn't amount to
much. It's all in the school, really. And I agree, there are some fantastic
lawyer-analysts out there. But the ones I really admire are the
mathematician-analysts, the hard-science analysts: they tend not to hog the
limelight like some of their more voluble counterparts, but their influence
is still enormous.
It's kind of interesting to see how the field evolved and grew out of the
strictly military/operations research stuff in the 50s into what it is now.
It's still evolving, which is part of what makes it so exciting. I don't
think what I'm doing is any easier than law school, quite the contrary!
Maybe it's better to say it *can* be easier than law school--and often is--
but doesn't have to be if you're in the right place and have some purpose
behind your choices.
And I hope I didn't sound too down on studying law. I took a graduate class
in constitutional law myself and spent a semester learning to write briefs,
getting acquainted with West's Law Finder, etc. just because it's so
important. I'd definitely recommend that much to anyone.
~Faustine.
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