I play bluegrass and old time mandolin as a hobby. One of the things I hear a lot is “I wish I could play music” (sometimes, I do too!). I started playing when I turned 50 - which is kind of late, typically. Many of the folks I play with have been playing their whole lives, but they’re welcoming - and I learned to play music, just like them, one note at a time. They welcomed me as a raw beginner.
I also hear people say “I wish I could code”. Same thing as learning to play music. You have to get down to it and try. Coders code - it’s not any more complicated than that. But just like you don’t start playing music by trying for a symphony, you don’t start coding by trying to build something large and complex. The same thing is true here as it is for music - you learn slowly, one character, one problem at a time.
When we’re younger, we have less ego and more willingness to start slow, make mistakes and messes, and be humbled by not knowing things. As we get more capable, we don’t like that uncomfortable feeling, and we lose our “beginner’s mind” - we become inflexible and stuck. We’ve all heard that the “really great coders (and artists, and musicians, and…many other things) never stop learning”. But there’s no magic to that - they just keep allowing themselves to be uncomfortable and to be confronted with new problems. They make glorious messes on the way to being glorious.
Saying “I can’t code” or “I could never play music” never helped anyone learn either thing. The only thing that ever does is trying - you have to be willing to do that awkward effort that makes a mess, and little by little, you learn. It’s a choice - you can choose to never feel awkward and stick to what you know, or you can make a bit of mess, make a bit of a fool of yourself sometimes, struggle a bit…and keep exploring the world your whole life.
I know what I like to do.
Sam, bluegrass banjo player here! You're spot on. And I'd add ... the great thing about computers and music is that you can go infinitely deep in both. There's nobody who knows everything in either space, and it seems like the more you learn, the more fractal surface area there is to explore.
Both have performance aspects -- is it a hobby where you love learning to do new things, or do you love making something real (writing code that's used by millions, or performing). Both are valid, but different, paths. And they both start with accepting that you don't know, and then working to learn by doing.