Yeah, but programmers aren't trying to justify higher pay or claim they deserve some special treatment because they are "expressing themselves".
Programmers are simply paid what they get paid because businesses they work for can make up that cost (of paying programmers the salary) with profit multiple times over, using the work produced by those programmers.
> Yeah, but programmers aren't trying to justify higher pay or claim they deserve some special treatment because they are "expressing themselves".
Yes, and no. There are entitled developers who think they deserve more than the average worker. And there are those developers who delve into their "Devine art" and are cranky because the world does not appreciate it. Usually those people are to be found around the more exotic languages it seems.
Art and IT have a big intersection from my experience. And majority of people in IT and also art are not entitled, nor are they on the Divine Train. It's just that as an outsider, you barely encounter those people, because of which it's harder to get a good picture of the art-scene.
Exactly, the markets are clearing just fine with programmers being paid what they are, given the sort of leverage businesses are getting out of them. The same cannot be said for art, the supply is vastly outpacing the demand, especially in light of the power law nature of art and entertainment consumption.
But, to +1 the other poster, programmers can be just as deluded as anybody else about their own importance, we don't have to indulge that either.
The distribution is different. The median programmer provides much more value than the median artist. Additionally math/cs skills apply much more broadly than art skills. The entertainment industry would be much less leveraged without the tools we built for them.
