Learning to Code

Regardless of Age.

It’s all relative anyway, right. That age thing. Why do we think something that takes mind power and curiosity can only be accomplished by young people?

I read Joelle Steiniger’s post about how she hates when startup founders talk about when they started coding at age 12 while everyone else was out playing.

She calls bullshit on the whole thought because that isn’t how she learned. And hearing these stories makes her believe that she missed her chance to learn this skill sooner, believing there was an age limit to the process.

As I’m reading this, I connect with her story and start slow clapping for the righteous words she shares. Then she writes about being 29 and worried she’s too old to learn programming. My internal soundtrack scratches to a halt.

If she was worried at 29. I’m screwed. At 39, I’m staring at the last 4 months of my 30s. My aspirations of being asked to participate in an article about top 40 entrepreneurs under 40 gone.

And I realize that there might be a woman nearing her 50s, reading MY post, writing my friendship off because she wants to create an app. She never thought she was too old to learn, but after reading ours, she’s beginning to wonder if she missed something.

But I’m still learning to code. And so is she.

Do it. No matter how old you are, start learning what you can, from where you are, starting right now.

I think there are plenty of resources out there to help along the way. I’m using a combination of code academy, lynda.com, code school to learn from and I’m trying to find a good space to contribute and learn from others who are already there. I think mentors are vitally important to this process.

Learning to code should be more like an apprenticeship where you get the basics from books/tutorials but your bulk learning comes from rotating mentorships (instead of internships).