I'm 17 and started teaching myself Python last year when they told me the course at my school was cancelled since only 5 people enrolled. I was incredibly disappointed. I wanted to learn programming because I love computers (of course), but also because I had very few things I attempted to master of my own volition. I felt that much of what I did was fragmented, satisfying an external pressures to succeed in all my academic subjects, nothing I could call a passion. It was a smack in the face when my school wouldn't support my desire to connect with something meaningful.

Fortunately, I picked a hobby that really accommodates self-learning and did as much coding as I could on top of school. Now I'm picking up web programming, looking into using Django and building my own site. What programming really brought to me was a new sense of mastery that originated with personal interest and drive. I think this feeling is what the latter part of the blog started to get at. It overrides any insecurity against geniuses or whatever because you'll be too proud of putting in your own work and too proud of your progress to worry.