Is it true that most people come from a humbling background?
Just curious. I don’t know anyone that is really affluent(family has 5m+ NW) studying CS. They are usually in arts or business
I wouldn't say humbling, most SWEs I've met were affluent enough to have at least a personal computer or laptop in their household during their youth. Most people in the companies I've worked at seemed to come from Middle-Upper middle class. But I do agree that the super affluent tend to pursue other things.
Lower upper middle class in a bigger suburb of a smaller city - me and most other white people in tech
Being a programmer is not considered a high social status profession in Western countries. Affluent students I have known went into prestigious professions like Law, Business/Finance, Consulting, or Medicine. To be clear, TC has nothing to do with the prestige. This attitude is changing somewhat but still pretty strong.
Microsoft founders had fairly affluent family I think. But I agree with your statement
And Facebook. And Snapchat. And Google. Plenty of rich kid founders, which does make sense although that’s not saying it’s the majority.
It depends on where your family made the money I guess. My family has 5-10m nw where my father was an engineer and made his money from engineering related business. So engineering is always something prestigious from our perspective whereas business profession is seen to be fluff/middle management.
Yes, CS jobs are risky and TC is low for most.