That caused the number of new (but not necessarily good) programmers each year to explode.
Your implication is exactly backwards, from what I've observed. People who learned programming as a kid for the joy of it are much more likely to be good programmers. People who went into it for job training are much more likely to suck.
I'm not implying that it caused there to be more bad programmers, just that it caused the number of programmers overall to explode, and that probably adds a lot of noise to any observations about older vs. younger programmers.
I agree with you, but I also started learning to program with a Commodore 64 when I was six, so I'm probably a bit biased. :)
Your implication is exactly backwards, from what I've observed. People who learned programming as a kid for the joy of it are much more likely to be good programmers. People who went into it for job training are much more likely to suck.