Lawyers often think that their problems relate to the practice of law. However, in many cases, lawyers are just experiencing problems and questions similar to those experienced by people in other careers. Lawyers don't always realize this because many of them have not spent much time in other careers.
But there is one aspect of lawyerly life that does particularly shape how lawyers engage with (or chafe against) the world. This is the deeply ingrained habit of issue-spotting. Issue-spotting is good when you're analyzing legal issues, but damaging when you apply it to your career and life. Read my trenchant analysis
here, in the ABA Journal. Controversial!
p.s. I didn't mention it in my article, but other professions can fall prey to this kind of misdirected, soul-killing, faux-comprehensive method of detached thinking: academia and journalism come to mind. It may have something to do with extreme INTJ/INTP homogeneity. But that's speculation.
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