Teach Yourself Computer Science

On the other hand, I think this attitude of programmers is too smug.

Many jobs that seem simple have to solve difficult problems and require engineer-like thinking. Sure some low-skill jobs, like cashier or mail delivery or truck driving don't require a lot of novel thinking on a daily basis. The bulk of the job is carrying out what you know.

But take for instance event organizers: no two events are the same. You need to negotiate the requirements from the client just like in software, you need to split up the work, plan it all out, execute together etc. Constraints often force you to be inventive.

Or how about lawyers? Even in mundane affairs, like divorce, no two cases are the same. There is probably more in common between one corporate mobile app or CRUD system and the other, than the circumstances of two divorce cases.

How about doctors? Sure some of it is routine, like much of a GP's work. But in complex surgeries they need to come up with a specific strategy and plan for the individual patient.

In fact, I think most jobs paid at the level of software engineers require a similar amount of novel thinking. The contrast is not software vs rest, but well-paid professional jobs vs low-paid, low-skill repetitive jobs (physical and mental as well, like office paper pushing).

Furthermore, many software jobs are really 9-5 "manufacturing". Not every dev is John Carmack. There's a huge demand on really simple business stuff and the very same functionality gets built over and over again by different companies for different business clients. These may be lower paid than the fun Google-level research-like creative software jobs, but they are out there. So top software jobs should be compared to the top of other professions, not just to any "white collar" job (because in the latter case you also have to include the "code monkeys" in the software jobs).

You know that person who you always go to when your program malfunctions? Or the high level engineer at your company who also seems to know how to diagnose a site incident or other strange software problem? What about the technical founder who leads a startup to do something new and extraordinary? Or how about the person who wrote your framework/language of choice? These are people who understand CS fundamentals, irrespective of whether they have a formal CS degree.

N2T teaches digital logic, what Turning saw, how it was physically implemented and how programming languages were and are developed. TLS introduced various topics like the halting problem in an effective and playful manner. Both spark interest, something I find some maths courses fail to do in many people unfortunately.

Seeing a very non-technical friend of mine being completely immersed in games like "Factorio" and "Satisfactory" where the entire game is essentially just putting constantly more complex and valuable resources together in automated ways is fascinating to me. He will talk about efficiency ratios until someone stops him, and when he's not playing he's reading wiki articles to better understand the problems he's presented with. The sheer look of glee and pride when he gives a tour of all the automation around his base is infectious, and although he doesn't share my amazement at my conclusion, I can't help but think that he's already doing what most engineers I work with do every day, and he doesn't even realize it.

Sometimes I feel like there's so much untapped potential out there, people that would have loved to get their hands dirty with micro-controllers, soldering, programming and all the other stuff that could help them solve real world problems, but they were just never given the chance. They never had the mentorship or the right context to develop those skills. Instead, most programming is done under soul-crushing enterprise conditions, and a lot of teaching about programming is (understandably) only about whatever will benefit you in the workplace. When you're an adult, there's no time for play, so most programmers I know would rather do anything but write code and solve problems when they come home from work.

I'm not sure what my point is here, but it is interesting how people look at programming and software engineering as something so inconceivably complex. The way I see it, it's basically just digital plumbing and carpentry, as long as you know how to use the toolbox: and most people will never even try it.