The grandparent comment is an Exhibit A "pull up the ladders" sort of attitude. It's a good thing, not a bad thing, that motivated people can grab the lowest rung and pull themselves up. I started out writing BASIC, moved on to C and PHP, and am now working in Python and JavaScript. It's a good thing that I didn't listen to advice that said "you have to be a computer science student to write programs." I could study algorithms while I was doing entry-level work, and do things like read CLRS and Skiena.