[theworld572]

> The problem can be addressed by removing the "employee mindset" from potential programmers.

This is very true and a nice way of explaining it. Also the people who got hired 5-10 years ago with no college degree are the ones who taught themselves PHP in high school and built sites with it. Then they taught themselves Java/Ruby/Python/Javascript etc. Most coders like that think "I want to learn coding to built X" and they go ahead and do that, employers can see that kind of initiative and drive.

Which is a very different mindset from "I want to pay $X amount to get trained to be a web dev because I want a job as a web dev".

[logari]

Thank you. There is a well-known sociological theory that things that matter cannot be gotten directly because you think they matter; rather because you want them, aside from their importance, then you can get them. Say you want to date a hot girl. You cannot say: "I want to be your boyfriend, because you are hot."

You acquire something important because you like it, you want it for intrinsic reasons.

You will go far in any field if you like it and want to excel in it. The ugliest man with the right amount of passion and intrinsic liking, and enough preparation can melt a beautiful girl's heart.

Taken to a logical extreme, someone very good at nothing, is notable, because he is "very good" first. In other words, the most boring person can also be interesting because of being "most boring".

The future of CS work increasingly looks like truly passionate programmers building things (like at YC). Companies have a shortage because of this, in the main, since the pay and conditions for real programmers is not good enough, and a real programmer can earn (by building stuff) even without doing a 9to5.