I didn't start until I was 25, after doing an undergrad in english and a master's in a completely non-technical field. I didn't really think I could become a "r

I didn't start until I was 25, after doing an undergrad in english and a master's in a completely non-technical field. I didn't really think I could become a "real" programmer just that I could learn enough to automate some things. I loved it and also the CS side of things, I kept working at it and now I'm working on my master's in CS, have built quite a good number of sophisticated applications that I'm proud of and am really surprised at how far I've been able to come. The biggest lesson in all this for me: all of that skill is just a function of time and practice stuff? surprisingly true. I didn't think I could ever do something like build a complier, but after going home and practicing everyday and reading constantly I got there. The additional lesson is that this method can be applied to most anything. Want to pick up and instrument? Learn a foreign language? Learn math? do it! I meet so many people who say "oh I could never be good at X", you can. And if it takes 10,000 hours/10 years to be an expert, it probably only takes 1000 hours/1 year to become intermediate, which is good enough to have a lot fun with something. Learning is the single most amazing thing a human can do, so don't stop