[VBprogrammer]

> I always use the example of masons whenever people complain that computer programming is hard work. Laying bricks is hard work, and not all that easy either.

I have worked some pretty tough summer jobs. Working in a garden centre it was normal to spend a whole day moving bricks and slabs from delivery pallets onto nicer retail pallets. While objectively it's much harder physically, it also much easier to guage progress and perhaps mentally more rewarding than having spent a whole day trying to wrestle a few bytes of information into the desired form. Even when you think you have succeeded you have a reasonable chance that something unexpected will come back to bite you in the ass.