this isn’t really an explanation but some of the most talented programmers i knew at one of the top engineering schools in the world didn’t start programming un

this isn’t really an explanation but some of the most talented programmers i knew at one of the top engineering schools in the world didn’t start programming until college. in contrast i have known some mediocre programmers who have been doing it a long time. let’s contrast this to say classical music, if you don’t start before the age of 8, it is physicslly impossible to become a professional. your fingers will never move quickly enough. what about soccer? could you be a pro level player starting the sport in college? probably not. this tells me that the skills to be a good programmer have less to do with programming and more to do with other stuff like being able to think clearly and reason about complicated things like math, problem solving and logic. those are things that don’t have to be taught using code and in many ways it feels to me like you need to learn syntax as a prerequisite to begin the intellectually challenging parts whereas you could just do it by studying math directly or building something with legos. anecdotally most developers i know are not interested in teaching their young kids coding. the ones i see most interested in it are non technical parents. but of course this is not true across the board