I will most likely never understand why I didn’t learn to code at a young age. My dad had a computer company and started bringing home computers when I was about 5 or 6. I was fascinated from day one and started playing computer games right away. Later in primary school I got hooked on Dune 2, from then on I only played strategy games. I still have fond memories of playing Age of Empires through the night, and then getting back behind the laptop after an hour or two’s sleep to run the business we just started.
Why learn to code? And is it too late at the tender age of 34?
But somehow I never got to the point of going deeper in the Computer Science world and to start programming. I had no excuse. My high school had a great computer lab and computer science classes. But high school was more about sport and chasing girls.
About four or five years ago in the heat of frustration of managing a company with teams of developers, I started to wish I knew more about programming. It turned out to be just a fleeting thought at the time, but in the last few months since I left, it has become a recurring theme.
So why learn to code now, at 34? Is it not too late? I have found myself reading more and more about software, startups and incubators. With all this reading my will to try and learn to code has steadily been increasing. And the idea of doing a software startup is really appealing! I will probably never get to the point where I can be considered to be a technical founder in a startup, but being a non-technical founder that can help code will go a long way.
So I have been doing some courses on www.codeacademy.com and it is a great deal of fun! They actually go to a lot of effort to make it fun and really easy to learn. They also break it down in nice small bite sizes so you can do something with small increments of time.
They have a great “track” called Code Year, which feels like it is meant for people just like me! They start with JavaScript and them HTML and CSS! Well so far it is a blast; my aim is to learn as much as I can in the 5 months in Fernie! An intellectual adventure to go with the skiing adventure! Follow my progress on Codeacademy.com.
Why don’t you join me? We are never too old to learn new things!