A lot of people have the idea that “tech” (whatever that is) is the path to riches, and that they can just start out and learn as you go, just as you might for a manual labor job.

I don’t mean this in any way condescendingly or to imply these people are dumb. Often parents/partners are telling them “go get a job”. The process is discussed a lot on HN, Reddit etc, but most people don’t know that job searching is itself a skill in and of its own. They don’t teach that in HS or college.