Ability to make a difference
I see no other professions in the world , which can make such a huge difference to life of people. If I was in born in renaissance age then I would probably be sculptor. For 21st century, software developers are the rock stars who make difference to society.
Non Linearity of Experience
This is very unique to this industry, I can have 10 years of experience and someone with little experience can beat me in my own field.
Design
Software code is no less than an art form. I treat code bases as paintings and developers are painters. Writing good code is an art in itself.
Monetary gain
I would be lying if I say money isn’t that important bias in selection. Face it, developers make huge money (because companies make tons by selling them). It works on principle of economies of scale. For example, I developed an application for a very niche industry, I get paid (~$5 K) for working on that. But the company gets $50 K after selling that stuff!
Originally Written on Quora.