sfscs

It’s because he was never one of them, the KGB; he was naive and thought he could send a message and show mercy by stopping his advance in exchange for concessions. He should’ve known that above all else, above money or image or power, trust or diplomacy, the one thing that the leader of the siloviki can’t do is to appear weak when challenged directly.

Absolutely! I'm 29, college drop out. Always liked computers, but never really programmed. Didn't do much for years, then just dove into php about two years ago. A year and a half ago, I got my first tech job making web site updates. That's when I really started learning a lot. After a year, the guy above me quit and now I'm the department head (though small department, lol). It feels like once I got my foot in the door, everything fell into place-- so that is the hardest part for sure.

Now I am starting to venture into other languages like Ruby and C in my spare time and I am excited to see where I'll go next. I know you are older, but its a similar story. Really, as long as you are into it, you will catch up in no time. And once you do it for a job, you will never look back. If you need a boost, take some online courses, go to meetups, sign up for a web development bootcamp. Meet other people who do web, you will find that a lot of people doing it now didn't start life as a programmer either.