[hpvic03]

Many people who are the best at what they do started their careers very early. If someone wants do that then I don't think you should discourage them. Being satisfied with your career and work over the span of a lifetime because you spent the time to get good at it is more valuable a few years of goofing off.

Besides, age 13-14 is when you start high school, and that's when things get real anyway. If you intend to apply to a top school you need any advantage you can get, and work experience in jobs that are actual careers is impressive.

[smt88]

I started charging for software development at 14. As I've said elsewhere, it didn't have any effect on my career whether I was charging for the work or not. Everything I did as a teenager was only valuable because I kept having to learn new areas of programming.

> more valuable a few years of goofing off

That depends on what "goofing off" is. Is it socializing and developing interpersonal skills? Because wild success hinges much more on interpersonal skills than it does on being the best programmer.

[hpvic03]

Socializing in high school != socializing in an industry.

I think you'd learn more about how to socialize with adults in an industry by hanging out with them... at work. And these are the people you want to get along with anyways.