I agree with the article, ~10 yrs will give you a good start if you stay with it.
When asked by others how much it would take, I try to avoid giving a number like that because it might discourage them. Who knows, had I heard or read that number early in my involvement, it might have discouraged me. However, my innate curiosity and fascination for the field made the time fly by without me noticing it. If you're in doubt, you might take that as encouragement. Programming is a field where the learning never stops, and if that's your thing, the time required will become secondary at most.
Yep, that's why I put the “~” in front of it and called it a start, not the end of the journey.
> You can have a well paying job as a programmer in only a few years.
Absolutely, if that's the extent of what you want out of it, you could achieve that and call it a day. But programming is also a field that's ever evolving. If you catch yourself thinking, “I've learned everything I ever need to learn”, then chances are that you'll find yourself left behind at some point in the future.
When asked by others how much it would take, I try to avoid giving a number like that because it might discourage them. Who knows, had I heard or read that number early in my involvement, it might have discouraged me. However, my innate curiosity and fascination for the field made the time fly by without me noticing it. If you're in doubt, you might take that as encouragement. Programming is a field where the learning never stops, and if that's your thing, the time required will become secondary at most.