I'm not completely sure I agree with you yet, but this argument does mesh very well with the trope that so many programmers first started programming when they

I'm not completely sure I agree with you yet, but this argument does mesh very well with the trope that so many programmers first started programming when they were very young. I was playing with BASIC at age 5, and anecdotally I've heard very similar stories from other programmers at a rate that exceeds what my expectation would be of a random distribution, and definitely exceeds corresponding anecdotal evidence from other professions (i.e. number of people in profession X who were doing X at a very young age). The point of possible disagreement is that I'm still inclined to think that any person can learn how to program at any point in time, but that it is just exceedingly uncommon for them to actually do so. Typical CS classes are certainly not going to accomplish it. Like you said, it's about thinking logically, systematically, and formally. I think very few people actually try to learn how to do that late in life. If you don't already have it, you probably don't value it enough to try to get it. It's almost tautological: how would someone who doesn't think rigorously be convinced of the value of thinking rigorously?