A few friends have asked me about this, idly wondering whether they should join a bootcamp or whatever. I enjoy teaching, and am quite good at it, so I give the

A few friends have asked me about this, idly wondering whether they should join a bootcamp or whatever. I enjoy teaching, and am quite good at it, so I give them an offer: a free 1-2 hour 1:1 introductory programming lesson. About half the people take me up on it and none of them have yet subsequently applied to a programming bootcamp. One person maintained a baseline interest and I occasionally give them more free lessons, which I find is a nice group virtual activity to maintain a long-distance friendship. A lot of the time this voiced desire to get into software development is really approximately the same seriousness as a new year's resolution. Some flash of desire for self-improvement that quickly dies, before or occasionally after the first attempt. I also see something similar from software engineers who want to get into my subfield(s) - they'll ask very specific questions about which textbooks to buy, videos to watch, etc. for every tiny topic. I'll answer them, but have no real belief they'll achieve their goal. Often the goal is felt to be satiated upon spending money to order a textbook. I myself am not immune to this phenomenon, of course, as the hefty physics textbook sitting unread on my desk can attest. Entertain their desires, encourage them, but give them opportunity to gracefully fail without destroying their savings and mental health by flaming out of a bootcamp.