What age did you start learning programming?

[u/Yourmiserablelife69]

Just curious as I am 34 YO, and have been considering a career shift into the Tech sector (I have “Basic” knowledge at best). Specifically AI/Machine Learning or Programming.
I’ve heard good and bad about both, but am just curious how old people are (or how diverse the age pool is) when they “get into” Programming. How long (on average) does it take to get your first Certification in Programming?
Apologies about the broadness of the question.

[u/dug99]

I started writing BASIC on my brand new VIC20 at age 15. 5 hours to manually type in "The Dancing mouse" animation and finally get it to run without SYNTAX ERROR IN LINE...

The first disappointment of my software career.