My banker friend, want to quit his job and venture into programming as a career because he thinks "programming is less/not STRESSFUL and more LUCRATIVE ".
What should I tell him?

Depends on where you're coming from / your personality really.

It could be true....

If he's really in banking and not just a clerk then he'd have to be much better programmer than banker to earn more.

Stick to your spreadsheets chappie.

Unless he's a shitty banker and fantastic programmer he can forget it. However, on average it probably is slightly less work. Every banker I know works 60+ hours and most programmers I know manage to stay at 40 hours for the most part. Of course that's not always true but on average he's probably right. Though less work hours doesn't necessarily mean less stressful. A think a lot of programmers including myself have an unhealthy habit of obsessing over work even when they're technically off.

The grass is always green on the other side.

I work 50-60 hours a week. Pay is nice, but I’m a senior dev for a Cali company.

Also, programming is usually very stressful because a) nobody understands what we do or how hard it is, and b) we don’t stand up for ourselves. Often because management just refuses to listen and starts threatening like angry pigeons. 🙄

Don't say anything. Just laugh in stressedOut

Tell him to keep his job until he gets comfortable coding. Than go for it.

Why discourage him from fulfilling a dream that could otherwise bring him happiness. I hate people like that telling others to not go for it.

If everyone followed the advice from the twat telling people to not go for their dreams we wouldn't have actors, musicians or even programmer or engineers.