My overall response is sort of meh. I say do what you love. If you're driven to do something you might as well do it rather than always second guessing yourself, or imagining what might have been.
On the other hand, there is a sort of frenzied mania that exists in the valley that I think is very limiting if you buy into too much. For the cool stuff that happens here there exists the same sort of herd mentality that geeks often decry in places where they don't fit in, the only difference being the fads here are more to our sensibilities.
FWIW I spent my teens and early twenties being a total slacker, and I don't regret it one bit. I went to public school and I got to know people from all walks of life. I did not move to the valley until I was 30. It's all been valuable experience, and not a detriment to mastering web development, because a regular 9-5 job on a good team was plenty of time to master the craft and still live life like a normal 20-something. The great thing about the Web is that all the best info about it is on the web itself, so physical location does not directly put you at a disadvantage.
As far as I'm concerned being young is about possibilities. Opportunities come up and you should take advantage of them. You shouldn't get bogged down with too much planning for the future, because the world we live in now is not the world of the future. Maybe that means hammering it out at a startup when you're 18. Maybe it means going into the Peace Corps. Maybe it means trying your hand at cat burglary. Whatever you do just don't let you or anyone else stick you in a box.
On the other hand, there is a sort of frenzied mania that exists in the valley that I think is very limiting if you buy into too much. For the cool stuff that happens here there exists the same sort of herd mentality that geeks often decry in places where they don't fit in, the only difference being the fads here are more to our sensibilities.
FWIW I spent my teens and early twenties being a total slacker, and I don't regret it one bit. I went to public school and I got to know people from all walks of life. I did not move to the valley until I was 30. It's all been valuable experience, and not a detriment to mastering web development, because a regular 9-5 job on a good team was plenty of time to master the craft and still live life like a normal 20-something. The great thing about the Web is that all the best info about it is on the web itself, so physical location does not directly put you at a disadvantage.
As far as I'm concerned being young is about possibilities. Opportunities come up and you should take advantage of them. You shouldn't get bogged down with too much planning for the future, because the world we live in now is not the world of the future. Maybe that means hammering it out at a startup when you're 18. Maybe it means going into the Peace Corps. Maybe it means trying your hand at cat burglary. Whatever you do just don't let you or anyone else stick you in a box.