The answer to all such questions should be: "As early as you can." Here's the reasoning. If you are doing what you love to do, it should be nearly impossible

The answer to all such questions should be: "As early as you can." Here's the reasoning. If you are doing what you love to do, it should be nearly impossible to stop doing it. If you are doing what you love to do you will try to do it as often as you can, so regardless of your intelligence, current skills, or general aptitude you will continue to improve until you are at the best of your abilities. If you are smart enough to post on HN, then you've passed the "am I smart enough" test. From that point on it is only a matter of when, not if. What do you find yourself doing all the time (everything included)? That is, or is closely related to what you should do. If it isn't programming then programming isn't what you should be doing, and you should exit ASAP so you can pursue the thing you truly enjoy and therefore will excel at. For reference you should consider reading "Outliers" [0] by Malcolm Gladwell, and check out Simon Sinek's talk [1] about marketing and how leaders inspire action. In particular the segment about the wright brothers vs Samuel Pierpont Langley starting ~7:50 [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outliers_(book) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outliers_(book) [1] https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action#t-463094 https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_insp...