We have all been programmed by our corporatist environment to think we need "important, famous rich people" to collect and throw money at us, so that code can be written.

But we can just work at a restaurant 
or farm potatoes 
or have a boring office job 
or work the IT help desk
or be a housewife 
or a college student, 
...and code.

This is a real thing.

We don't need their money to build.
We don't need their permission to build.
We build for ourselves.
On our own time.
On our own dime.

We are sovereign coders.