I started, well, pre-kindergarten. Or in my teens, for anything major and self-guided. Or at about twenty for producing professional results. Or in my late twenties, as someone who could do research-level algorithms work. Or today.
If I stop using a language for a while, I have to relearn it. The term language is very appropriate - learning and retaining a programming language acts very much like learning and retaining a human language.
My take-homes about "when to learn programming" are:
* If you have kids, expose them to "Hello World" programming early. By which I mean, once they start reading. The cognitive benefits of multilingualism are greatest at early ages when neuroplasticity is high. There are numerous languages and projects which are suited to this. Lego robots should probably feature prominently once they're of an age to not eat the pieces.
* You're never too old to learn programming. The biggest jump in capability byfar is between non-programmer and someone who has been at it seriously for a few weeks or months.
* At the same time, start learning programming as early as possible. Learning to be a great programmer takes a lifetime. But very little of that is learning syntax! Great programming takes marketing, art, math, psychology, and whatever else you can cram in. Pretty much any field of human endeavor has something to contribute. "What to program" is far harder to learn than "how to program" - and people who start learning programming later in life will have a lot more to draw on here than some 12 year-old.
If I stop using a language for a while, I have to relearn it. The term language is very appropriate - learning and retaining a programming language acts very much like learning and retaining a human language.
My take-homes about "when to learn programming" are:
* If you have kids, expose them to "Hello World" programming early. By which I mean, once they start reading. The cognitive benefits of multilingualism are greatest at early ages when neuroplasticity is high. There are numerous languages and projects which are suited to this. Lego robots should probably feature prominently once they're of an age to not eat the pieces.
* You're never too old to learn programming. The biggest jump in capability by far is between non-programmer and someone who has been at it seriously for a few weeks or months.
* At the same time, start learning programming as early as possible. Learning to be a great programmer takes a lifetime. But very little of that is learning syntax! Great programming takes marketing, art, math, psychology, and whatever else you can cram in. Pretty much any field of human endeavor has something to contribute. "What to program" is far harder to learn than "how to program" - and people who start learning programming later in life will have a lot more to draw on here than some 12 year-old.