This is fantastic and should be given its own page or placed in a wiki where the community can keep the links and data updated so that it is available to future kids whose parents are freaking out ever that strange looking software on their kids computer.
I took BASIC in high school, and then again in college, but I didn't major in CS. When the web "hit" in 96 I taught myself HTML and later CSS and got decent enough to pick up the odd freelance website design gig. However, I was (and am) a biz dev guy by trade,and what I figured out was that being the biz dev guy that understood the web, and programming, and eventually open source was a great career path. It kept me hands on in technology, even though I never made the leap to full time programmer.
Although I agree you can learn at any age, it does get harder as you get older. After a day at the office, some family time and getting the kids to bed the average 40 something just doesn't have the mental horsepower left to sit down and spend a couple hours learning Python or PHP. Quite frankly, you are tied at that point of the day. All nighters are a young persons game :)
Authored Comments
This is fantastic and should be given its own page or placed in a wiki where the community can keep the links and data updated so that it is available to future kids whose parents are freaking out ever that strange looking software on their kids computer.
I took BASIC in high school, and then again in college, but I didn't major in CS. When the web "hit" in 96 I taught myself HTML and later CSS and got decent enough to pick up the odd freelance website design gig. However, I was (and am) a biz dev guy by trade,and what I figured out was that being the biz dev guy that understood the web, and programming, and eventually open source was a great career path. It kept me hands on in technology, even though I never made the leap to full time programmer.
Although I agree you can learn at any age, it does get harder as you get older. After a day at the office, some family time and getting the kids to bed the average 40 something just doesn't have the mental horsepower left to sit down and spend a couple hours learning Python or PHP. Quite frankly, you are tied at that point of the day. All nighters are a young persons game :)