Aside from the many valid theories already listed, I'd add: perception of dullness Many people find the idea of staring at code all day, regardless of potenti

Aside from the many valid theories already listed, I'd add: perception of dullness Many people find the idea of staring at code all day, regardless of potential for remuneration, boring. Worrying about every little character, futzing around with compilers and debuggers, and reading manuals isn't many people's idea of fun. Over the years, several non-developers have commented on this to me; "boring," "dry," and "dull" were generally the adjectives used. It's also perceived by many (rightfully) to be especially prone to the "retrain on your own dime" issue (which has become more common across industries and jobs, but in software dev is particularly acute.) The idea of spending your weekends having to learn a new library or brush up on your fundamentals to interview yet again isn't appealing, and it wouldn't surprise me if younger people were already very clued into this. "Most desired career among young people: 'YouTuber'": http://www.tubefilter.com/2017/05/24/most-desired-career-young-people-youtube/ http://www.tubefilter.com/2017/05/24/most-desired-career-you...