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The biggest advantage is enthusiasm. When I was younger I was excited about everything in the world of computers.

If I combined my experience and knowledge now with my enthusiasm from back then, I'd be an industry titan.

Nothing's really that interesting anymore, and when virtual reality gets good I'm locking myself in a room with my virtual girlfriend and staying there.

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Computers were a big deal when I was in junior high. Learning assembly language was a status symbol.

Today students take computers for granted. Most students now can't program at all.

Today students take computers for granted.

You say that like it's a bad thing. But it's really a good thing, for both the general population and also for those select few who do know how to program.

(Also, I'd bet that the percentage of students who can program is a lot higher now than it was when you were in junior high.)

I don't know about percentages, but I would bet that when I was in junior high, students who learned programming took it much more seriously than students who do today.

This is what students used to read in junior high/high school:

http://www.csbruce.com/~csbruce/cbm/transactor/

Depends on when you were in junior high school:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Computing

I can hardly wait to shake my fist and yell at kids to stay the heck off my lawn!

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