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Comment by henrik_w | Hacker News Reader

Counter point: I love programming, but it also pays very well (due to value it creates, and supply/demand for programmers)

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People in general hate programming. Most IRL friends I have are absolutely terrified of programming and don't dare to even try or found it very tedious, boring, and hard, then very quickly gave up. I have friends who can't program even when they think that's fun and want to learn it. I like it, but the programming like the kind I have to study for to take a tech interview definitely isn't so much fun to me.

If you like programming, you're among the lucky few. If you like the kind of problems on leetcode, you're among luckier few of the lucky few.

What if you like the kind of problems on Leetcode, but are lukewarm towards actual programming? Asking for a friend, of course.

Maybe you could get a job at Leetcode

But not programming. Maybe they need a pastry chef?

The programming I love and web development are very different things.

Sadly, the latter is the most prevalent.

That's a super important clarification. I'm sure a lot of us loved algorithm optimizations and solving fun problems, but for the majority of us programming devolves down to "Modify a CRUD website template for the next 20-35 years".

And that desire to work on algorithm optimizations and solving fun problems is why we have such utterly complex web development toolchains today.

I actually agree totally, but perhaps not for your intended reason.

I have a hunch that the clear syntax and relative simplicity of web programming is what drives a certain kind of developer to long for complexity and turn something simple into this: `user.public? && (current_user.try(:test) ? user.test? : !user.test?)`

Yeah, that's something that a developer learns better as he gains experience, but as a younger dev I know that I craved complexity for complexities sake, and to prove that I COULD work with complexity. I've since grown out of that.

I've always found "CRUD" work ends up being way more complicated, interesting and challenging than its reputation indicates.

Moreover, when it becomes tedious, it's almost always a result of poor tools, bad decisions or developers doing manually what should have been automated.

I'm also pretty sure if there were no intellectual challenge involved I wouldn't see so many unnormalized databases.

Huh, good thing I love web development then.

The essence of how much you get compensated is that it relates to supply and demand. The smaller the supply of people with certain skills and the higher the demand, the overall greater compensation.

There are two factors that influence the supply. The article discusses that a job that everybody loves is going to have a higher supply of people seeking that job. But it also matters how many people can actually perform the job. Programming is one of those examples where it takes a certain amount of skill and dedication that some people just don't have.

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