"In my opinion software and programming skills are worth LESS THAN NOTHING if they don't have a business idea to monetize them... "
Tell that to the developers that Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc are fighting each other to bring on board. The skills are worth a job with a guaranteed paycheck.
"And last time I checked, my programming colleagues rarely possessed valuable insights into what problems non-programmers are willing to spend money on."
Nobody possesses this without putting in the legwork to see if the idea will somehow make enough money to be worth the effort. You do the legwork and from that feedback, decide to keep moving forward, drop the idea, or pivot. The key is getting the process started. Sure, different people have different industry knowledge, but nobody can predict success from the beginning.
Tell that to the developers that Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc are fighting each other to bring on board. The skills are worth a job with a guaranteed paycheck.
"And last time I checked, my programming colleagues rarely possessed valuable insights into what problems non-programmers are willing to spend money on."
Nobody possesses this without putting in the legwork to see if the idea will somehow make enough money to be worth the effort. You do the legwork and from that feedback, decide to keep moving forward, drop the idea, or pivot. The key is getting the process started. Sure, different people have different industry knowledge, but nobody can predict success from the beginning.