Perhaps you don't know how time consuming getting decent at programming is... I know people who just started a business (not in IT), who make way more money everyday then programmers.
Programmers get their source for income from online discussion (mostly) , while some people you know find local niches, not involved into programming. Eg. a take-away bar that earns 1.000$ / day from day 1 (we do their cash-register)... I don't see many programmers do that :)
I think this is poor advice. "Just starting a business" is not a low-risk path. Yes, there are lots of businessmen making more than programmers, but it's also true that a massive fraction of businesses fail within a few years. It's not fair to just compare the successes there to the entirety of another field.
>>Perhaps you don't know how time consuming getting decent at programming is
It sounds like your advice is "Becoming a programmer is too much work, go do something else". The definition of "decent" varies wildly depending on the company & job you're working for.
Programmers get their source for income from online discussion (mostly) , while some people you know find local niches, not involved into programming. Eg. a take-away bar that earns 1.000$ / day from day 1 (we do their cash-register)... I don't see many programmers do that :)