Not late , start to code now I'm 26 and know nothing about programming. Would it be too late for me to start learning Python and R? I’m one of the highest paid software engineers in America, in the top 1%. I work for a Fortune 50 international enterprise. I started programming in in the late 1970’s with BASIC, COBOL, FORTRAN, PASCAL, then VB, classic ASP, SQL, ECMA (JavaScript), PHP, JAVA, Python, and NodeJS. I build and run my own servers in Windows and Linux (various flavors) and have infrastructure running in the cloud on AWS. I am to say the least, a veteran “developer”. Oh, and did I mention — I don’t have a college degree. I am completely self-taught. I would encourage anyone who wants to get into programming to do so, but like someone else offered here, why do you want to do it? Technology is in my blood. But if all you are looking for is a higher paying job, find another career. Why? Because without the enthusiasm, desire and drive to immerse yourself into technology, you will limit your ability to advance and make a 6-figure income. Sure you can find anyone willing to hire you at $25/hr. to code. But you will find it difficult to grow beyond that if technology is not in your blood. I have worked with housewives who knew how to code. They were very nice people, and I’m glad they had the job, they were a pleasure to work with, but they really wanted to be doing something else. I have worked with people who have college degrees in computer science, I was constantly correcting their bad decisions. Not that I am the be-all-end-all of developers, but I have decades and decades of experience. Finally, since you bring up learning Python and R, those are mainly used in Data Sciences. Without a data science degree, I would recommend you start out with a more mainstream set of languages. Learning Python will only get you part way. You will also need to learn ECMA (JavaScript) and CSS and HTML and SQL. Find a local coding “bootcamp”. It will cost you about $5,000 to learn a much more useful language like JAVA, C# or even PHP. PHP gets a bad rap from the college crowd these days, but PHP runs half the websites on the internet. The people who are in really high demand these days are JAVA plus UI (user interfaces) developers. If you have the design skill, you can make killer rates as both a front-end and back-end developer. In any event, I do not want to discourage anyone from seeking out a new career that might really interest them. At 26 you are probably at just the right age to learn coding quickly. Just ask yourself once you are into it, “Is this something I really, really like doing day in and day out?” Because if it’s not your “thing”, you won’t be happy doing it. I’ve met a lot of those kinds of developers. Best wishes and good luck!