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Am I too old/young to learn programming?

Saifullah Usmani on June 05, 2021

Hi, my name is Saifullah Usmani. I am a Passionate Programmer and a Graphic Designer. I have been programming since I was 13. I have learned a lot ...
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Valeria

It's not only allowed to learn at any age, it's a job requirement. One should be ready to continuously evolve to stay up to date in the tech world. Gladly, you don't need to know everything by heart, there are dev tools and resources at your service.

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Saifullah Usmani

@valeriavg Yes Valeria you are right. A programmer must evolve continuously to stay up to date in the tech world. Dev tools, resources and open source is the best thing.
I believe being programmer means that you commit to learn everyday.
Thanks for the feedback.

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Siddharth • Edited

misconception #1: Free courses are not good, buy paid courses:

I have never, ever used a paid course since I started at age 10 (or even a free course, if you don't consider random articles on the web courses)

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Saifullah Usmani • Edited

Awesome Siddharth you started at the age of 10 wow. And I have seen your articles They are so informative and great.
Thanks for the feedback. You have added validation to my article by this comment. Thanks

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Mirko Vukušić

I started at the age of 12 too. It was 36 years ago :) No IT schools at that time here, no internet, no Youtube, no Google, no Udemy. Staryed with Basic and ZX80 assembler on ZX48 Spectrum. Modems and phone BBSes came later, then Windows 3 on 13 diskettes, Altavista and Yahoo before Google. Netscape 1.0 before IE. Then ADSL was considered fast. From 386, 486 to my first Pentium 80 Mhz with staggering 8MB of memory amd 60 GB drive. Nokia was associated with monitors, mobile phones were not a thing yet. Then Slackware 3 Linux, all Windows numbers, Perl, PHP, Classic ASP, websites in MS FrontPage before Dreamweaver. Ill stop there, in 90ies with the story :) But never stopped learning since 12. And never stopped having fun.

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Saifullah Usmani

@psiho Fantastic Mirko Vukušić. 36 years ago a young child of 12 started programming career with no google and stuff, WOW it just blew my mind. You have seen the evolution I really admire you. Since 12 you are learning and enjoying your journey, it is just awesome to hear.
Thanks for reaching out and expressing your thoughts here. it really means a lot to me.

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Micah Lindley

As a sixteen-year-old dev of seven years, I sincerely disagree that YouTube is the best way to learn programming. There are lots of good free courses on Coursera and Codecademy that helped me get to where I am today. A more interactive, step-by-step approach is often much more useful than bringing yourself into tutorial hell that's never finished.

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Saifullah Usmani

@micahlt Yes I agree with you. YouTube is not the only source. But as long as tutorial hell is considered it is a real thing and watching courses on Coursera or Codecademy or any platform i.e YouTube(There are a lot of good courses on YouTube too) means the same thing Tutorial Hell. The way you get out of it is not by unfollowing YouTube but by building your own projects without the help of tutorials(From anywhere).
Although your point of "tutorial hell" is a valid point. I will surely add that in the blogpost sooner so new beginner don't stuck in tutorial hell rather build their own projects.
Thanks for the feedback Micah Lindley.

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codingwith3dv

We both started programming about the same time I was 12 when I started now I am 14.

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Saifullah Usmani

@codingwith3dv Great.
I saw you are working on a UI library called nueva. It is really awesome, you are doing great. Actually you are doing much better than me when I was of your age. Keep learning and improving yourself. You are doing awesome.

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codingwith3dv

Really glad to hear that. 🤗

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Charlie J Smotherman

Commodore 64 started me on my journey. Still coding at 62, never to old to learn.

"I have no special skills, just passionate curiosity", a quote from Albert Einstein one of my favorites.

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Saifullah Usmani

@cjsmocjsmo WOW Charlie. You are right never too old to learn. I liked that Albert Einstein's quote you shared. I think curiosity is the thing that sometime leads you toward your passoin. But I am trully inspired and amazed by your comment. I mean wow 62. It is also my dream to code whatever I want my whole life because I just love coding, it is my passion. When I started I didn't even knew that I can earn money with it. It was just a child's dream that lead me towards my passion. By the way Thankyou for your feedback on my post, It means a lot.

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Jason V. Castellano

"Because money attracts but it is not loyal" this hits me.

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Saifullah Usmani

@thegreytangent I really put a lot of thought into this, thank you for noticing. I really appreciate you taking the time to express that. Thank you, it made my day to hear that.

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Jon Randy 🎖️

Start any age you like. Passion is the key. I'm self taught from age 7 - back in 1983

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Saifullah Usmani

@jonrandy wow Jon Randy. It is awesome that you are self taught from age 7. You are absolutely right. Passion is the key. I believe your comment is the real motivation for so many people who will read it. Thanks for the great advice and motivation.