I suspect many people on HN have an unrealistic view of how most of the population operates.

People who can do any version of STEM with some minimal basic competence are unusual. They're not exceptionally unusual, but they're certainly not the population median.

Media numeracy is around Level 3 on this list. Numeracy in the US is lower than the OECD median and is somewhere between Levels 2 and 3.

https://www.nationalnumeracy.org.uk/about/what-numeracy/what...

I'd estimate you need Level 4 for programming to make any sense at all and maybe get you started with very simple programming tasks, Level 5 to be able to do basic code construction on a daily basis, and Level 6 to be a competent senior with some useful modelling skills.

Level 5 is maybe 20-25% of the population. Level 6 is probably less than 10%.