I never noticed that trend. None of my coworkers do woodworking specifically, some know enough not to mistake wood chisels for screwdrivers, and they may actual

I never noticed that trend. None of my coworkers do woodworking specifically, some know enough not to mistake wood chisels for screwdrivers, and they may actually be rather good at it, but it is out of a wider set of skills that may include masonry, electronics, sewing, mechanic, etc... the usual jack-of-all-trades hobbyist crafty kind who do stuff themselves. I can think of a few reason why software engineer appear to like woodworking. - They are overrepresented on the internet, me, a software engineer who mounted a shelf a few years ago is more likely to exchange woodworking tips on the internet than my granddad who was an actual 8 fingered woodworker. - If most of the people you know are software engineers, the ones who like woodworking are likely to be software engineers too, a simple statistical bias. - Woodworking is technical work, software engineering is technical work, it is more related than, say, team sports, dancing or organizing birthday parties (some software engineers do that too of course, but it is not something they are known for). - Software engineers earn the right amount of money for that kind of hobby. Woodworking is rather expensive, good tools are not cheap, neither is the space your workshop takes and the wood, especially now. But is not as expensive as racing cars and flying helicopters.