As you learn the mechanics of writing and running a program, start thinking about specific programs you want to write. This is what I never managed. I picked u

As you learn the mechanics of writing and running a program, start thinking about specific programs you want to write. This is what I never managed. I picked up programming very fast at school, but could never come up with anything I'd want to use it for. Now that I finally have a few concepts I want to see done (good UIs to promising algorithms), I no longer have the time to pursue them. That's part of why I believe kids now should start with html+js+css and be introduced to greasemonkey, stylish, and browser extensions. Maybe Node.js, too. Everyone uses some site a lot, and they will find problems in those sites to attack with their new knowledge.