I'd agree that programming in isolation is not a tremendously well-remunerated skill. However, it does act as a force multiplier for your other abilities. A no

I'd agree that programming in isolation is not a tremendously well-remunerated skill. However, it does act as a force multiplier for your other abilities. A non-technical parallel is public speaking. With extraordinary skill (in isolation), you could end up as a PR flack making 100K or so. If you combine great speaking ability with strong organizational and interpersonal skills, you could end up making orders of magnitude more as a CEO or politician. Programming, like public speaking, can be thought of as a delivery mechanism. As more of our world becomes "programmable", the increased reach and leverage of coding ability will make it far more valuable.