I was the one who appeared to learn it super fast. In retrospect, I had comparatively large amount of preexisting knowledge - my parents shown me very basics (in basic) before and we had some programming games.
And looking at my kids, this stuff matters a lot. A kid that comes in with complete zero experience has massive disadvantage against one with some experience.
This is very key. By the time I entered undergrad CS, the kids who had owned computers growing up, and played or even modded videogames, had a massive starting advantage over the ones who hadn't.
The entire first year of CS courses was mostly there to instill fundamental computer skills (not CS skills!) in the ones without that preexisting knowledge.
I haven't seen any data on video games helping with programming. But having a strong math background definitely seems to help. I don't think its knowledge - there's something about how you internally model a system that math teaches you. Approaching programming with the same mindset makes learning much easier.
I read a paper over a decade ago talking about this. They gave a survey to freshman students and looked for correlations with their end of semester marks. They found the students who assumed there was a consistent set of rules underpinning programming (even if they didn't know what those rules were) dramatically outperformed the students who thought the computer would "work it out somehow".
Video games definitely help develop overall computer literacy. The basic computer skills that are missing in folks who didn't grow up around computers are so foundational they might surprise you:
- Filesystem basics, aka "where does a file go when you save it, and how do you find it again?". Do you know how many people just save everything to the documents folder, and scroll through the list of every file they've ever accessed every time?
- Window management. I clicked on something, and now my document has disappeared. Help!
- Drag-and-drop. Particularly on a laptop with a trackpad, this requires a fuckton of coordination.
Modding video games is real entry point. It is low key programming. But also how to edit files, filesystem, most importantly that you can and no one will yell at you. Basic computer literacy, simple administration are also something kids without free access to computer lacked.
This stuff is not taught here. You either know it or are seen as lost cause.
Even more importantly, I had those games that introduced you to loops, ifs, variables, programming in general.
And looking at my kids, this stuff matters a lot. A kid that comes in with complete zero experience has massive disadvantage against one with some experience.