My comment is going to cover some of the answers given by others but here is my view of the situation. Management/HR: 1. They don't know programming (to them i

My comment is going to cover some of the answers given by others but here is my view of the situation. Management/HR: 1. They don't know programming (to them it's magic). 2. They are afraid of paying for people who are less than rockstar. If they can't keep up with the Googles and Facebooks then they can't succeed they hear. 3. Technology/market has been moving faster than developers can develop. Need it yesterday is the theme management dances to and they don't care about paying you 30 hours of overtime if they can get something to market this week instead 2 weeks later under a relaxed deadline. 4. All computers work like Star Trek because Siri can tell them the weather according to their logic. Programmers: 1. Starting your own framework or library just to advertise/divide the mindshare of other programmers instead of collaborating. 2. Not knowing how to interview candidates correctly (talk about programming? nah, just come up with a programming whiteboard then nickpick them to death to find one good enough to play sidekick.). 3. Working for less/putting in too many hours. Working for less brings the profession down and putting in too many hours reinforces the idea that only good programmers put in loads of overtime. Of course this isn't 100% spot on for every company, market and country but it is what I see most of the time.