[janmarsal]

No, programming is a keep-it-simple-stupid kind of game. I've got colleagues who started programming in their 20s, 30s even 40s. All the hard thinking has already been done by someone else. You just build with legos. It's more tedious and time consuming than it is mentally challenging. At least for the average joe software developer. All that academic fancy stuff I learned in the University turned out to be useless once I got a job. For most of those prodigies the harsh reality of 9-5 is probably a big disappointment.