You know, I ignored my interest in programming for many years, instead opting for a trade, specifically aviation maintenance. I went to school for 2 years for it, passed tests, got licensed, got otj, got taxi quals, engine run certified, and a whole host of stuff.

I also broke my body doing it for $18, after years and years and years, I finally made $25 an hour, whoopie.

I worked around hazardous chemicals, dangerous equipment, high voltage electricity. I stood on concrete floors all day busting my knuckles.

I fell off a ladder and smashed my face on a keel beam, requiring I get stitches. I saw other people get much more hurt than that.

I did all of this with the constant pressure that if I fuck my job up, people are going die, and I will go to jail.

I went back to school, got a job as a software engineer at a midsize company that never is in the news and you have never heard of, and get to sit at home and make 3 times the salary. There are 10 other companies in the same block as mine that have 3-400 hundred person engineering teams, there are lots of jobs for developers outside of the silicon valley bubble, we mostly just hang out and do our thing.

Until trades start paying more, it's just not worth it. I'm sure someone will come in and say that they are a plumber and make $1000 an hour or something, but I can say, there were 500 people in the facility I worked at with the same qualifications as me making the same $18.