I didn't learn programming when I was 12

The above is the general case, I think, for learning to code. If you're good at chess, sports, whatever, and you're lucky, you'll get help that works as an 'external learning curve velocity enhancer'. The same thing would account for young programmers with proper guidance, but the matter of fact is: most of us didn't have that (I even didn't have internet, I had to get books from the library and cherished a floppy disk containing a plethora of technical game programming articles).

I also see this in a different field I'm active in, as a volunteer at the local life saving / swimming club. Those that start at 6 take like 8-10 years to learn most of the material. Those that come in at 16 or 18 can catch up in a year or two, whilst well motivated.

I would go even further. Even though you state that for any person member of humans, there exists someone smarter than person, sometimes you slip into writing as if there is a linear ordering.

The geniuses and prodigies, sure if you project unto one dimension you can find a few people who dominate. Maybe you can find a few such dimensions. But there are vastly more dimensions where they would rank poorly than not. So instead of looking at it down the narrow lens of any one subject, it is best to focus on creating a uniquely useful combination of skills that you dominate on.

And then, why focus on intelligence or comparisons or domination at all? Focusing on things like that can be detrimental. Treadmill wise and also, especially to creating. Ranging from "I know I am super smart enough to do that so why bother?" to "I am not super smart so that is out of my league." Better to focus on results and ideas. You want to do something? Try it or don't. Sometimes being confused can be useful. Creatively speaking.

And then take a step back. It is possible that as you say, the distribution is no longer normal at tail but the range on humans is still a tiny pinpoint. We got things that are vastly dumber than us and it is very certainly possible for an intelligence to dominate us in orders of magnitude.

Why focus on such small change?

I have thought long on this in trying to combat feelings of worthlessness compared to how very much less I have accomplished than my father did at my age. He was one of those genius type people. =(

What's "worse" is that my father is a computer scientist (who was involved in the industry since the 70s) tried to teach me since I was 6 but I was not interested.

My brother was interested and became a very distinguished developer in his own right (working as a developer since he was 12).

The feeling of 'missing out' / 'starting too late' seems to be ageless. I have experienced it many times through many years and it always prevented me from pursuing my passions.

Some might find it funny that a 18 year old will feel that way but I remember feeling the same thing.

By chance however, I stumbled into programming again but this time it caught me. I was finally enticed enough by it's complexity, its interesting problems to solve and the creative outlet it give me to overcome the debilitation of my fears and 'regrets'.

What I found was that if you love doing something, if you enjoy the learning and the rewards that come with it - you stop worrying about where you are in the great scheme of things.

Perhaps it's my age finally telling me that time is not what's has past or how much you still have left but how you are using it now. Use it to enrich yourself and enjoy it as you see fit.

We are wired to compare ourselves with others. But these days we don't need to be the best hunters to survive and flourish, to get the girl and live happily. We just need to find what makes us happy and enjoy doing it. Doing that will just naturally make us the best we can be.

IMHO

I'd like to return to study computer science some day, and in the meantime I'm just doing the best I can to learn on my own.