> There are proportionally very few coders in the world

I wonder how many people can code but for whom coding is neither a major part of their work, nor a significant hobby?

My brother is training to be an oncologist. But he did a computer programming elective as an undergraduate and wrote some Python programs, and I believe got a decent grade too (need to maintain GPA). That was years ago, but if he felt the need or motivation he could dust it off. I’m sure he’s got the brains to learn more of it if he wanted to, but between a young family and a very demanding training program, I understand why in his limited recreation time he’d rather read a sci-fi novel than muck around with computers. But when his kids are older and he’s more established in his career, he’ll have more time-if he fees the itch.

I joked with him recently that there is nothing stopping someone with his career from doing a bit of mine as a hobby, but the reverse is not true: “hobby oncologist” sounds rather disturbing.

This is why I switched from programming professionally to doing something else. Pretty much every field of knowledge (that existed before 1950, at least) is interesting once you get into it. Most of them you cannot do for fun. I can program for fun. I can do something else for work. Doing programming as a job ruins my favourite hobby.

I think the point was that the people producing content for their own personal website are a small, self-selecting group, with social media catching most of the rest of the online populace.