Agreed 100%. My experience is that being a good programmer is more than a matter of intelligence. It's a certain thinking style that lends itself well to organ

Agreed 100%. My experience is that being a good programmer is more than a matter of intelligence. It's a certain thinking style that lends itself well to organizing data flows and presentation. It's a certain ability to focus on abstract structures and keep chains of relationships in the mind while envisioning how to manipulate them. And a lots of otherwise smart people just don't think like this natively and "teaching" them is both painful for everyone and has limited effects. I bet most of us have met perfectly smart people who just didn't click with coding. Just not a good fit for their thinking style. Even if they nominally want to be programmers for the money or cool factor or whatever. Even if they take a bunch of classes. They just never quite get there. And square pegs beating themselves into round holes usually does indeed cost more than it produces. People should play to their strengths instead of chasing external expectations. It's better for them and for society in my estimation. But certainly if people want to give programming a try they should. And at least "some" experience in programming is better than none. But most people can't/won't become professionals.