I spent twelve years writing software. Ford, Merck, Nike, Compuware, the Hartford Whalers. Then I went to law school, became a patent practitioner, and spent a decade doing something completely different.
Now I’m back in the code. Working at AWS. Building things again.
People ask if the law years were a detour. I don’t think so. Patent law is fundamentally about understanding systems well enough to explain them to someone who doesn’t. That’s also what good software architecture is. And good writing. And good teaching.
The common thread isn’t the domain — it’s the skill of translating complexity into clarity. Code does that with machines. Law does it with institutions. Writing does it with people.
The nonlinear path is the only honest one. You follow what’s interesting. Sometimes it takes you sideways. Sometimes sideways is exactly where you needed to go.