User blog comment:BunsenH/Age/@comment-40022303-20190803192728/@comment-24577221-20190803202609

Thanks for the heads-up; I've fixed the numbers.

Yes, an early start on this kind of stuff can make an amazing difference. Programming, in any form, is a way of thinking about the world: given a set of rules, what are the consequences? And working backwards to figure out why something isn't working as expected: given what I observe, what can I figure out about the causes? What kind of mistake have I made? Did I do something incorrectly, or are my basic assumptions wrong? It's a kind of thought process that is best learned as young as possible, whether it's programming on an actual computer, or working with materials to push one's skills in arts/crafts.

I first started playing games on computers when I was around 8, when one of my local universities ran a science open house -- text-adventure stuff, with some degree of action/consequence, as opposed to video games. And there was the Ontario Science Centre's exhibit of computer stuff, with its hands-on logic games. I don't think I got the chance to do real computer programming until I was around 13 or 14, because that was when my high school first got its home computers, and the local universities' math and computer clubs started letting school students play on their mainframes.