You left out education in your function, which I think is paramount to hard work &amp; talent &amp; luck. The education will give you direction, which is an input into your hard work and the catalyst for the discovery of your natural talents.<p>The reason why programmers are worth so much isn&#x27;t as much about the value they deliver. It&#x27;s true -- it <i>can</i> be very profitable. However, software developers are scarce in nature because of the education needed to write code.