I completely agree with the sentiment. Even if you're not going to do it as a job, knowing how to program enables you to think about problems in a different way

I completely agree with the sentiment. Even if you're not going to do it as a job, knowing how to program enables you to think about problems in a different way, plus you occasionally still get to solve problems that other people cannot. And I also agree that advertising job prospects to kids is disingenuous. > But someone who has some curiosity about how things work, and some experience of making them work That's probably the biggest issue. I don't blame kids for not seeing a meaningful niche there, because we're entering a time where the inner workings of things are abstracted away, and often times they're even hidden away by force. "Have you ever thought about how text appears on a screen?" is something I could latch on to as a kid, it's very difficult to transfer that perspective to a person growing up today. I'm not necessarily lamenting this. There will always be people who get into computing no matter what. But I don't see a worse path for those who don't. There are many things modern humans in general are not literate about, and I suspect computing will join these fields.