[kragen]

I was in a similar situation, and I think the slowness inherent to an interpreted language was a big frustration to all of us kids programming in BASIC in the 01980s.

Unfortunately I didn't have the guidance and direction Oscar Toledo G. had—my father did what he could, but he's just not an educator, and he's also not the same level of wizard as his father Oscar Toledo E.—so I didn't learn assembly until I was about 13, and then I learned from a book. (Also, I suspect Oscar Toledo G. has more innate aptitude than I do, but I think that in this case my lack of practice and feedback is what was holding me back.) I didn't write my first playable game until I was 29, which was http://canonical.org/~kragen/sw/inexorable-misc/tetris. (I wrote some games earlier, but they were just unplayably bad.)