I started coding when I was 10. I think what made the difference for me was that I started out in QBASIC and it had excellent documentation within its help menu

I started coding when I was 10. I think what made the difference for me was that I started out in QBASIC and it had excellent documentation within its help menus. I didn't have any books or anyone knowledgeable to learn from at the time, but I was able to constantly look through that documentation to try to figure out what I wanted to do. I had to make meticulous notes on everything, and make sure I really understood something in order to use it to solve a problem I was getting stuck on. I think that hard-won knowledge was excellent, and it really taught me the value of API documentation and being able to find the answers myself just by reading that documentation.