People discover new interests all the time. Usually driven by crossover they have with other interests. Computing is now such a ubiquitous part of life that it

People discover new interests all the time. Usually driven by crossover they have with other interests. Computing is now such a ubiquitous part of life that it's interesting to a much broader set of people than it once was. I won't assume this is true of you, but I'd say this assumption a lot of programmers have that they've always been intrinsically interested in computers is cart before horse. It's probably more that computers were relevant to other things they were interested in - themes like math, gaming and sci-fi - and that provided the hook. The intrinsic interest came later. Being real about it, these were some of the only major themes that computers were relevant to until relatively recently, and that's a decent explanation of why we see a concentration of people with those interests in the industry today. As the relevance and impact of computing broadens out, massively, we should expect and welcome a much wider array of people becoming interested in it where in the past they wouldn't have been. It's not that they are coming to it late, they are exactly on time for it to align with their interests, just as it was for you. You should use the benefit of your experience to encourage and help them to get started!