Surely there's a middle ground right? Being a surgeon is hard, being an astronaut is hard... there's a lot of jobs popular culture says are hard but it doesn't

Surely there's a middle ground right? Being a surgeon is hard, being an astronaut is hard... there's a lot of jobs popular culture says are hard but it doesn't stop people from trying. The thing with programming is that it's turned into one of those things people say "you are born for". So when newbies have trouble with it, they give up and say their minds don't "work that way". I think it's good to tell people that anyone can learn the basics of programming and get started. No need to be a genius for that. I don't know why but people seem to think programmers are "different" than the general populace (even from those with other hard jobs). But it's not easy. We've all dealt with hard problems in our jobs, classes, or personal projects, right? If you tell people programming is easy they'll hit that first roadblock like the article says and quit. Seen it happen many times.