> I'm coming from the other side of things. I was a non-programmer with a programming passion that used programming as a part of my work voluntarily
I would love to ask why didn't you pursue programming in the first place, but last time I did that the person explained to me that they have a complex, chronic, hard to diagnose rare digestive tract disease and they went to study nutritional science specifically so that they could at least figure out what to eat to not makes things worse.
Honestly, I thought there was more glory AND autonomy in academia than in "industry." I came from a family that valued education and learning and monastic-like traditions over things like money or productivity. With the way my blinders had been fashioned, it simply didn't occur to me until later in my life that doing "problem solving for hire" was a viable life-path, and that software as a pursuit in and of itself offered me everything academia offered me and more.
I would love to ask why didn't you pursue programming in the first place, but last time I did that the person explained to me that they have a complex, chronic, hard to diagnose rare digestive tract disease and they went to study nutritional science specifically so that they could at least figure out what to eat to not makes things worse.