[cookie_monsta]

Hmmm, I know I'm playing to the wrong crowd here but I am a horrendous carpenter. Here's what is missing for me from carpentry:

- copy/paste. You made one perfect table leg? Great, now make another 3. From scratch

- undo. Cut that plank a bit short? Start again

- incremental changes. Want to change the angle of that join? Start again

- imports. Don't want to make those fancy doohickies that go along the edge? You could try to buy some but it's not like there's an international database where you can pick and choose often for free

- debugging. Oh, your wardrobe just fell in a heap when you installed it? Hopefully you can salvage some of the materials and then figure out what went wrong

I'm not a very good programmer either, so I'm sure there's more

[layer8]

Let’s put it this way: If carpentry earned the same money as programming, we probably would have more carpenters than programmers.

[cookie_monsta]

You could probably say that about any occupation imaginable though, right?

[layer8]

It wouldn’t be the case for occupations that are either unattractive in terms of the actual work (coal miner, sewage worker, fisherman, undertaker) or have high barrier to entry in terms of qualifications (neurosurgeon, PhD-level scientist, lawyer, professional sports).

Carpentry is reasonably attractive in terms of actual work, so that if it payed as well as software development, many people would want to take it up. My point is that a larger portion of the population would have the necessary ability (and, I assume, inclination) to become a competent carpenter than a competent software developer.