I started programming BASIC at around 20 (1981) I think, after buying a Timex Sinclair 1000 and teaching myself from examples. Went on to Commodore 64, then C128, then hopped onto a school mainframe for COBOL, then a Tektronics Minicomputer to use BASIC for very primitive CAD work. The class was superseded the next semester by PCs running AutoCAD, so I saw the future and retook it-- which led to LISP, and Pascal, and DOS batch files, and Unix shell scripts, etc etc etc.

Fun stuff.

But yeah, in general I see a lack of motivation and curiosity in the youth around here. They want to consume, not to create. It's sadly true of my oldest son, stepson and their cousins/friends.

My youngest (almost 15) is the exception. he's scripting in garry's Mod and getting very good at it. He's also got the right mentality for professional programmer... which is good and bad.