My background is in math and physics. While studying those subjects in college, I learned programming on my own. Today, I develop technology for fancy measurement and control equipment. When I say I don't program for a living, I mean that it's not my job title, and my managers may actually be unaware of the role of programming in my work.

I use programming extensively as a problem solving tool, for things like data analysis, modeling, automation of experiments, and prototyping. Almost all modern equipment is electronic and computerized. To be capable of rolling out an MVP on my own, I program.

You will rarely see my computer without a Jupyter notebook on the desktop. ;-)

In addition to working in a computerized field, program code is just a super powerful way to express ideas. And the disciplines of good programming practices (yes, learn them) provide ways to organize the innards of complex things, so they actually have a fighting chance of working and being right. Plus, it's fun.

People who work as full time programmers may make more money than me, but I'm not sure that I can do their jobs. When thinking of any profession, a person should not only look at the cool, fun stuff, or the money, but what the actual daily grind looks like, because that's what you have to survive.