> I feel like I got into programming when it was seen as low-status profession in the late 80s.
No, you didn't! If you are 45, then you were 5-10 years old in the late 80s. You might have started playing around with programming at that time, but you didn't "get into" it in any professional sense. I am willing to bet anything that you had no knowledge, let alone concept, of the professional status of programming at that time.
Fair. My perception was my parents thinking this is a dumb waste of time.
When I eventually went to college in the late 90s / early 2000s that attitude seemed to switch. Add to that today's coding bootcamps for kids. It seems like quite a different world.
No, you didn't! If you are 45, then you were 5-10 years old in the late 80s. You might have started playing around with programming at that time, but you didn't "get into" it in any professional sense. I am willing to bet anything that you had no knowledge, let alone concept, of the professional status of programming at that time.