Is there right age to learn programming ?
There is no right age to start learning programming. I have heard stories of people in their mid 30’s changing careers and becoming successful programmers. I have also heard stories of people programming since the age of 6 and working on AI at IBM by the age of 14.
Don’t get worried if you feel as if you are not born “gifted” enough to program. It is a complete lie to think people are born to do this. It is 100% possible to gain better problem solving abilities. While there will always be the top 1% that were just born gifted with the ability to solve problems at ease, most programmers are just average people who studied hard. Keep in mind that it is also proven that being born gifted and not exercising that ability will result in it being mostly lost by adulthood.
To me, programming feels similar to a math class where you are constantly working on equations that fit all possible conditions. Programmers claim you don’t need to be good at math to be good at programming, but the logic is almost identical. Many complex algorithms boil down to algebra or basic calculus in some way or another.
As long as you have passion, you will achieve anything.
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I don’t think there’s right age for learning anything, not only programming. Of course the sooner you start the better, but if you truly want something, you can achieve it in any age. There’re lots of people who decided to change their lives, change jobs and join programming in their 30’s, 40’s and even 50’s, so you can do it anytime if you want to, why not?
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I am 24, I was even thinking that I am too old to learn programming.
I am noticing this more and more.
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I think there is no age to start learning to code. This is something in today’s age that can help you no matter in which field you’re in. I am a mechanical engineering major and about to graduate but I don’t even know how I fell into programming 4 years back. It’s just something that gives you so much power in hand that you can almost do anything with that same computer you were using on daily basis. You can automate things if you know how to code. You can do so much. So I think there are no age or background requirements to start learning to code apart from some dedication.
Hello @Mikael3211. Thanks for raising the question as I have seen a lot of people become worried about this issue.
The answer is, No. You don’t have to be at a certain age or in a certain range of age to learn programming. If you think that you are starting late, and you might leave behind; don’t think like that and hurt yourself. People can start learning programming at any time, and they can also cover the earlier part within a short amount of time. So, there’s no harm in starting late. If you are consistent enough, then all the shortages would become irrelevant sooner, and you will find yourself with a good amount of programming skills within no time! It is the characteristic of programming. Best of luck.
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So? Learning is a life-long endeavor. Will you not take up fly fishing in retirement because you’ve passed some arbitrary age? Of course not. Learn what you want when you want.
jrm
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The thing is, programming can be used for anything. Former doctor but want to change it up? You can learn to program and work on programs related to the medical field. This could be processing medical data in a lab, medical equipment, or a insurance application.
24 is young.
It takes a few years to get off your feet with programming and freeCodeCamp is a great place to start. Only in recent times were programming resources such as FCC invented for all ages to learn. Otherwise, you would be reading textbooks right now.
Some might say that they were bad at math class in high school, and that they can never achieve being a good programmer. Keep in mind that it is all about how you were taught. For me, I do badly on some tests but do fantastic on every single project I can do. Math tests are not a real benchmark for the real world. Every project I have done at FCC has required extensive research, just as with any other job.
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I agree completely with you my friend. Never is too late to start something new im life.
I wouldnt get caught up in age, its just a number with a few wrinkles thrown into the mix, Im 48 years old and just started actually, I have completed the HTML and CSS courses and now in the process of working with Javascript, The html and css wasnt much of a problem but that Javascript isnt the easiest thing. Ive watched videos and read allot anout front end web developement and my take away from everything ive seen and read is that the courses challenge you enough to struggle so that you kinda feel like you dont know anything and forces to to think and google and look at videos just to find out that it gives you enough of the answer to figure it out. Basically just blow through the courses so your familiar with whats going on and the real learning will be the projests you decide to work on after the courses.
My job requires me to be up at 5am and i work 12 hr days away from the house so my goal in learning a new skill is to be able to stay at home and work remote BUT if I need to go into an office then im not gonna have to drag my sorry butt out of bed at 5am…lol…good luck on your journey
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I am nearly 40 years old and while I have some passing experience from ages ago in college, it didn’t start “clicking” for me until very recently. I had too much going on before now to be able to devote the brain power to it. I knew I probably had some talent when I was helping someone try to understand loops a long time ago for their job interview. The right age for you to learn is when you’re able to devote enough energy to keep going forward.
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Exactly some of the study/memory tips I’ve written for myself. “You do not do the bulk of your learning through classes alone, learning the basics through the classes, and THEN applying that knowledge to projects is where the real learning comes from. From the doing, AND the watching.”
As a proverb has it:
the best time to plant a cherry tree was twenty years ago. The second best time? Now.
Unless you’ve got a time machine, you can’t start learning twenty years ago. If you mean is there a “too young”, my sons were writing Adobe Actionscript at 5 years old. My dad is 81, and writing PHP and javascript.
So nope, not really.
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Just to be clear, what we’re saying is that you don’t need advanced math to be a good coder. I can’t remember ever having to use any math above what I learned as a 12 year old. And to be honest, the “math” of learning coder was harder than actually working as a coder.
But that’s not to say that there aren’t coding jobs out there that require advanced math. And if you want to get into more technical understandings of things like algorithms, then math is good. But most coding jobs do not require anything above middle school math.
There are some skills that you learn in math that are critical in coding. You have to break problems into steps, analyze them, come up with a logical plan (algorithm), and work through it methodically. But those skills are not unique to math. It would be like saying that before you can learn how to make a great stir fry, you have to master making a pasta primavera, just because some of the skills overlap.
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This is a nice discussion. I believe that there is no right age to do anything. What is required is a desire to do it and the determination to find a way around obstacles, and there will be lots of them as time goes by.
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