I ran many programming classes when I was in S.Korea, and I heard a lot of similar questions from the students who just started to learn programming.
If you are considering to study programming, you might as well read these!
1. There are so many technologies out there. Isn’t it too late to catch up if I start now?
Of course there is a lot to learn!
For me, it’s been about six years since I started programming in earnest.
Six years sounds quite long, but it’s been more than 20 years since Windows 95, StarCraft and Yahoo came out.
So, have I studied all those 20 years of technology? Of course not.
The pros and cons of the programming industry are that there are a lot of new technologies every month, while many old ones are dying at the same time.
That means that at any point in time, if you have a skill for the most trendy one, you can step into the IT world.
Nowadays, as you know, web or mobile applications are the most popular areas in the IT world (when I wrote this for the first time it was 2016, so it may be different now). Many of you are studying web programming, IOS, and Android, but you don’t have to know all the fundamental knowledge when you create a particular application. You just need to follow the happy path that other developers have already discovered.
Of course, the amount and the depth of knowledge will differentiate advanced developer or others, but it’s too early to worry about that.
2. Shouldn’t I have started when I was a kid?
YES, that would have been very helpful.
However, people who ask this question seem to think of programming as a sport (of course, there are some areas that are like sports).