Okay. And?

That’s not me just being glib. We have almost a million percent more engineers these days, and that number is very nearly not an exaggeration.

I’ll take that over your BASIC prompt plus “intrinsic motivation”, whatever that is. By every possible measure, more of the people you think probably “should” be software engineers are today.

I don't think more people should become software engineers. But I think more people, even non-professional programmers should be able to program computers for their own needs.

So basically I think programming should be something that a lay person do, like learning to drive a car.

More people than ever are capable of this today by a wide margin than at any point in history.

Computers being insanely useful out of the box is what has driven their adoption, and that widespread access has done more to enable people to explore programming than dropping hapless novices into a BASIC prompt at startup.

> More people than ever are capable of this today by a wide margin than at any point in history.

Capable, yes. Because there is Internet.

But is it easily discoverable? and is it interesting once discovered? No and No.

Okay, and?

You keep changing the point you’re trying to make.

So there is no/vastly less motivation to program the computer for ones own needs or fun, (unless you are already a programmer by trade)