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Comment by thenmar | Hacker News Reader

Wait, are you saying that college is too late to learn how to program?

I didn't begin programming until college (I'm a white male in the US), and I've gotten paid to do it ever since.

That's me on the AUTHORS list for Google Chrome's v8 engine [0] (I ported it, and Node.js, to Solaris if your curious), so I'm at least competent enough to do that.

Anyway, that's proof that it can be done, and at a level that make a difference somewhere. :)

That said, I don't like to code, so maybe that has something to do with why I started late. I was into computers from pre-school onwards, though.

[0] https://code.google.com/p/v8/source/browse/branches/bleeding...

I didn't begin programming until after college, actually. But I had a math degree by then (theoretical math, not even applied). I had developed that curiosity and drive, however, and I think college is too late for that.

edit - I mean for large numbers. The exceptions are always wonderful to see.

another edit - I also don't think that most programming is about programming, it's about figuring out how things work. Just learning to program doesn't help with programming very much. "Figuring out how things work" needs a name, and that's what needs to be taught.

Actually you are a good confirmation of the bias. You didn't start until college, and you don't like to code.

I interpreted it as if the individual doesn't have an innate curiosity and need for answers, how things work, how to tweak things, an endless desire to learn. If they don't have that "hacker spirit", then it's unlikely they are going to be immensely successful or game-changing.

Anyone can get a job doing coding from learning it at any age.

Is college too late to learn arithmetic? I would equate the two; in fact, I have wondered for a while if we could actually replace arithmetic lessons in elementary school with programming lessons (and have students learn arithmetic by implementing it in code). You still have a malleable brain in college, but picking up an entirely new way to think becomes harder as you age.

Gee, I don't know. Grace Hopper learned to program quite late in life and she did ok. Maybe it's not WHEN people start to code, it's HOW they start to code and whether they learn while doing it? Big-time athletes don't appear because they were kings of the middle-school playground for 10 years, they participate in an increasingly intensive program that winnows out pretty much everybody who participates.

I don't think that we see a huge number of failed programmers ending up as insurance salesmen or financial advisors because they blew out a knee.

I think the argument is that statistically speaking, it's too late to produce passion in large quantities. It's not just about one person discovering code, it's about getting enough to close the gap.

I'm not sure I agree... many people discover things in college that they've never heard of and subsequently major in. But it's at least debatable.

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