Absolutely not, and 24 is young. When you're 22, it's intimidating to compete with the people who have been on a career path since high school (e.g. the kid wh

Absolutely not, and 24 is young. When you're 22, it's intimidating to compete with the people who have been on a career path since high school (e.g. the kid who knew he wanted to be an investment banker when he was 13, and has been reading the WSJ since 1997). It creates the illusion that the only way to succeed is to have been planning for it since you were in grade school. What you learn later on is that pretty much everyone interesting will change career tracks at least once in his or her life, and have to start over. It's not so bad, because a lot of the skills you've learned previously transfer over. Advice: pick up a language (I'd choose Clojure, but HN would have some good advice here) and start writing code. It doesn't matter if it's useful; just become comfortable with the process. Find a job where you'll be able to learn from a mentor more experienced than you are.