It's great to be writing code at 12 if you want to write code, and clearly this kid has a talent for it, but that doesn't detract from what all the other 12 year olds are doing. So long as they're happy and safe to do what they want to do it's all good. Growing up is not a competition.

Also, while it may seem great to learn early, I've worked with people who didn't write a line of code until they were in their 50s and they were far better at it after a few years than I am despite having 20 years more experience. Some people have a gift. Others have to really work at it. Sadly I'm in the second group. :)

What about those of us in the 3rd group - started late and have to work hard at it!

Any parent who thinks they have a place in determining what pursuits their adolescent child is interested in is in for a wakeup call...

or all the 16 year olds

Or all the 42 year olds, ahem, who are currently learning JS/Node/React. :-/

Speaking of which, I'm also learning Spanish. Liam, I'm from the UK where we only speak one language. The one thing I really, really wish I'd done is to have learned another language. I'm doing it now, but it's so much easier when you're young.

It doesn't even matter what it is – pick one you like the sound of. French, German, Italian, whatever. When you bump in to someone later in life and you hear them speaking another language and you can interact with them, there's no greater satisfaction.

/off topic

It's almost like a programming language is a language...