And organic chemistry isn't hard? Programming is a profession. Professions are hard. That's what makes them professions. If it was easy, then people would jus

And organic chemistry isn't hard? Programming is a profession. Professions are hard. That's what makes them professions. If it was easy, then people would just do it as part of other activities, and there would be no specialization worth of the title profession. We don't think of typing in URLs as a profession, or spell checking documents, but we do think of graphic design or architecture as professions. Programmers are operating close to the limit of human capability, just as other professionals are. Only a few people can do it well because it's a talent which is unequally distributed, just like being able to draw. As for why this particular activity pushes that limit? The hardest part of programming is building mental models of non-existent objects which have no natural analogs. It's dealing with the "virtual."