Derek's point is of "practice makes perfect" variety. It is true to some extent, however there is one big caveat. You have to do some of that practice at the

Derek's point is of "practice makes perfect" variety. It is true to some extent, however there is one big caveat. You have to do some of that practice at the right age. What is the right age? For most skills/professions/hobbies it is under age of 20 and the most critical is age 12-16 or so. Thus, Derek got some of that singing practice at the right age and got the basics. Unfortunately, he will be disappointed at the progress he can make at programming, because brain is not good at making new pathways at 30 compared to 15. I am speaking from experience, I did not do enough programming in my teen years and it has definitely hurt my progress after age 30. Even with today's title inflation, I am yet to find a chess grandmaster who started after age 30. Sure, someone can probably reach a low expert/master, but even those are not common. On the other hand, I have known quite a few people with the disposable income AND time, who tried to get better at chess and managed at most 100-200 ELO point increase.