Programming and in general tech work has been extremely highly compensated compared to most other industries the past few decades.

This means a lot of intelligent (and not so) folks who could do whatever they wanted chose tech to chase the money. Get a little lucky in life and maybe stock options and they get to do what they actually enjoy the latter half of their life.

Most of society can only dream of such capability. The ones who actually have the bravery to pull it off vs. grinding out their final days in a career they are not passionate about are incredibly inspirational to me at least!