As someone that started "programming" very early on (when I was 9 years old) and noticed over the years the huge advantage I had over my peers in terms of "thin

As someone that started "programming" very early on (when I was 9 years old) and noticed over the years the huge advantage I had over my peers in terms of "thinking as a computer" I can definitely say that experience matters. But it's most definitely not all that matters, not even the most important thing after a certain point: * other people may be faster learner and may forget less * other people's interest in the subject matter may decrease at a slower pace than mine's * other people are simply younger and their body can be "fully awake" for more time, have more energy available to learn (instead of dealing with family issues), their brain is healthier/younger There's also a unintuitive negative effect of having expertise: you easily miss out the simple explanations/solutions. This makes total sense, the more things you about a subject matter the more your brain will attempt to explain behavior through those means. As you become an expert in a subject matter you deal with more specialized/detailed aspects which results in your brain trying to think about those to explain situations or find solutions when a "newcomer" will very easily figure out that it's a simple problem/solution that can be done. So don't feel disheartened, there are pros and cons to being at every level of expertise, it's a tradeoff.