[bigger_cheese]

I think the real problem is the word "Programming" is such a poorly defined and generic term. Until you pin down exactly which definition of programming you are talking about saying "Programming is hard" is no more meaningful than saying "Mathematics is hard" or "Writing is hard".

What frustrates me is the reputation programming has, it has somehow cultivated this image that computer code is some kind of magical and esoteric thing which you need to be some kind of genius or wizard to understand. It's reputation is such that otherwise sensible people will balk, hesitate and just completely shutdown when confronted with code. I am an engineer (the non-software type) I see this behavior in my coworkers and it frustrates me to no end there is this prevalent attitude 'I'm not a programmer, computer code is too hard to understand...'

It reminds me of the reputation Mathematics (the subject) had when I was in high school. Math had a reputation as being a 'hard' subject so a lot of people seemed to come into it with preconceived notions that it was difficult to learn and therefore they weren't smart enough to understand it so they weren't going to engage with it. I see exactly the same attitudes with 'programming' today.