I admire programmers because that’s something I could never be.

I can program just fine, when I care to. It’s not math and not really math-like (despite what you’ve heard) so I have no problem with it cognitively. However, I absolutely despise debugging and dread doing it. It’s a horrible despair-filled activity that vitiates all life and all hope. I’d rather wrench out my own fingernails than debug a broken program for two hours. Been there, done that — no desire for a repeat.

Thus, I admire people (like my partner) who can do that, as it seems about the most difficult and for me the least rewarding activity on the planet.

Since debugging is 80%+ of programming, it is not a vocation I want any part of.