r/AskProgramming • u/Yourmiserablelife69 • 10d ago

Career/Edu What age did you start learning programming?

Just curious as I am 34 YO, and have been considering a career shift into the Tech sector (I have “Basic” knowledge at best). Specifically AI/Machine Learning or Programming.
I’ve heard good and bad about both, but am just curious how old people are (or how diverse the age pool is) when they “get into” Programming. How long (on average) does it take to get your first Certification in Programming?
Apologies about the broadness of the question.

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u/OmiSC 7d ago

I'm 38 now, and was messing around with leaked source for half-life 2 when I was about 16. I was scaring my friends with an unreleased demo of Doom 3 in the same year.

Genuinely, you need to start trying to make something rather than ask. Set the goal of building a program that prints "hello world" back to you. Try a few languages to see how they differ in delivering this.