Most hobbies need funding to get started and to continue. Wood to carve, cables and electronics to solder. Programmers need only their time (as long as they have a computer). It is the most cheap thing to pick up and learn.

This is some fucking poetry.

This is only so because computers became necessary items to do everything else as well, so everyone needs/uses one at some point. Can't say the same for carving wood or electronic pieces. 50 years ago this would be reversed I think.

Time is the most precious resource if you ask me. But... everything else take time as well, so I have to agree with you!

not really true, everything has a cost including development. it's just now most people have computers but that will only get you so far cause of personal projects, if you want to make money doing it you have to spend money on domains, website hosting, Internet bill, etc

You don't need a domain to learn to code. Only when you get to the stage of actually going for live users. The rest can be tested locally. As for internet, you would be hard pressed to find a household who didn't have internet already. So that isn't really a programming cost, since it already existed. The same as a computer, most households have one, even if it is shared.

@Knossos wood, drills, hammers, nails was easier to get a hold of than Internet. and this was in year 2005 for me. and the Internet was dialup.

so I'm guessing you're talking about silicon valley.

I'm not sure what you are getting at. I didn't say anything about the past. I'm writing about the present. You can go any arbitrary amount of time back and say things were harder to acquire. I was lucky that when I was a child, my dad bought a BBC micro, not for specifically, but he saw I took to it and got a massive book on programming basic. All it cost from that point on was the time of a youngster and an increased electric bill.

even now starting programing still cost, I live in Mississippi and it's one of the most technology inept states I have been to. mostly cause where I grew up to this day has nothing besides dialup at $19 a month, and there are people that don't have computers even though that number is alot smaller than before. now in places like silicon valley, nyc, etc I can see why some people would believe development has no startup cost cause everyone has wifi and the cost for it has been driven down by competition, and in most of these places some schools are issuing laptops to students. it isn't happening everywhere. my monthly cost to stay in business is $50 a month, along with extra stuff like domain, hosting, etc

Ok, I can't comment about Mississippi. I grew up in the UK and live now in Germany. The boundary is very low to getting started wherever I have lived. Though I appreciate it will not be the same everywhere. I can see your point.