[telchior]

I don't know if this is debunking you, but you've put words in OP's mouth. They didn't say that "she can't install Python", or anything remotely like that.

They said, the 72 year old woman is starting from zero. She may not have done anything at all yet (perhaps for lack of knowledge on where to start).

It is highly likely that she just thinks she wants to code, and will give up during the first step into the thicket of incomprehensibility involved in starting from zero. But the same exact thing could be said about a 12 year old starting out, and absolutely nobody would suggest that the 12 year old should be discouraged from trying. Rather, most everyone would cheer on the 12 year old and throw resources at them. (Pretty much the same ones people have already suggested here, so I won't add more.)

Bit of a pet peeve to me -- the older people get, the faster people will jump to say that they shouldn't do something new. Not that you were necessarily saying that, but it happens quite often.

[tomcam]

You’re damn right. My answer was completely out of line. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31358958

> Bit of a pet peeve to me -- the older people get, the faster people will jump to say that they shouldn't do something new. Not that you were necessarily saying that, but it happens quite often.

I am also old and I am always trying things that take me out of my comfort zone. My answer was specifically meant for someone who wanted to be on track to work as a programming professional (which was nowhere near what OP mentioned). Age had nothing to do with my answer, by the way.