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It's absolutely not. I think a big part of the myth comes from barely-legal techbros repeating what they heard, and maybe high-fiving each other. I half-jokingly blame PG for seeding this idea into early dotcom startups that took over tech, but I suppose it would've happened anyway (consider stereotypical teenagers thinking adults are dumb). One thing that does happen is that, as you learn more, you're not as easily impressed with yourself. Another thing that does happen is that a lot of people put their time and energy into other things. This is a long discussion, and I can hear the objections, but addressing them pre-emptively was getting too lengthy. Another thing that happens is we forget how hard it was to learn some things that now seem easy. Besides the implications for collaborating with or teaching people who haven't yet learned particular difficult things, we need to remember it for ourselves, when we have to learn something new (and leveraging things already known isn't enough). Discouragement is a big deal at any age. Health can slow down an individual in general. And that's important for 20yos to understand for themselves, not for generalized prejudice against others. Good nutrition, good sleep, exercise, try to avoid serious injuries (and when injured, make sure you're getting good medical advice on recovering properly), don't be shotgunning "energy drinks" and coffee or worse, don't think you're managing bad stress just by getting through it (nope, you're doing possibly permanent damage), mental health, good relationships, establishing financial security (too bad we don't just have this by default in a wealthy country, but until we do, financial security leads to better health, and can also solve problems that come up). If you want to get into software, it just takes time and effort. You can start very vocation-oriented (e.g., do nothing but learn and practice React), or you can be guided more by curiosity and getting a broader diversity of experience over a longer period, and see what you end up diving into deeper. Or both. |