[omarhaneef]

There is this story, perhaps apocryphal, that someone asked Louis Armstrong: what is so great about jazz?

Supposedly, he answered: "If you have to ask, you'll never know."

Programming is not exactly like that, but every programmer I know of has spent hours and hours programming for fun, because there is a particular pleasure to it akin to writing, where you sit for hours and create/debug (puzzle solve).

Perhaps not everyone feels that way, but I think anyone can feel that way. It is worth giving a teenager a shot at that feeling.

It just so happens that this feeling is a gateway to making lots of change in the world, making money, participating in society and many other good things! This just happens to be such a great added benefit to this feeling that it should give you confidence that this would be a "good habit" for young people.