[throwawayAskHN]

Learning to play an instrument is fine.

Learning to play an instrument in order to "change the world" and become the #1 rock star is worrying.

There are other factors involved, lots of people want to be rock stars, so there is a lot of competition, and many of them are very mean people who don't fight fair.

There are lots of people who wanted to become rock stars but didn't make it or aren't smart enough, and they will be jealous and try and stop you. They don't care how hard you are trying. They will even try to steal it if you succeed.

You CAN do it, but it will probably take ten or twenty years or more and be much, much, much harder than you think.

You will eventually have to become very obsessed with programming and spend 12 hours every day doing it, just like a rock star or basketball star spends all day practicing. You won't have any friends or girlfriend or normal life.

If you don't succeed, you will become mean too, and have no choice but to work for somebody else like a slave, even though you worked so hard.

That's probably what your parents worry about.

It's up to you. Are you the smartest? Are you willing to work the hardest, harder than anybody, for 20 years? Are you willing to give up your entire future?

That's what it will take to "change the world," and in reality, the world won't change very much no matter what you do. Even Steve Jobs only really gave people new cellphones, and he spent his whole life trying that hard, and died very young because of it.

[impendia]

I disagree. OP is fifteen. I was staggeringly ambitious when I was fifteen, and although I didn't achieve everything I was aiming for, I'm super-glad I was.

It is easy to "change the world". Next time you're walking on the sidewalk, and see a piece of trash, stoop and pick it up. Presto: you've made the world a better place.

The question is how much, but certainly saying that OP "won't have any friends or girlfriend or normal life" IS COMPLETELY WRONG. Most very successful people I know have satisfying personal lives.

I dissent from the parent. I would suggest you not ask yourself "Are you willing to work harder than anybody, for 20 years?", or indeed to compare yourself to others at all. The question I would invite you to ask yourself, which it sounds like you are doing already, is "What is something interesting and helpful I could learn?"

Good luck to you!

[unimpressive]

Who downvoted this man? I want this guy to succeed as much as you do, but we can't let him burn out.

What Mr. Throwaway is saying isn't necessarily true, but you need to keep it in mind, because it's true enough. (Of course, if somebody on the 'net telling you it's impossible is enough to stop you, you were doomed from the start.)

Mr. Throwaway is probably giving your parents too much credit. I suspect they're worried about you wasting your time. (Lord knows I do enough of that.)

My recommendations:

1. Tell them about your radical plans to change the world, if you feel like you can. If you don't move on, don't put yourself or your mission in danger over their approval.

2. Try writing some code on paper. It doesn't "look" like wasting your time, and it trains your mental debugging skills. I found it helpful, if it's not working for you then move on.[0]

3. Do you have a phone? Install an SSH client and then program on your box over SSH. (If you use Windows or OSX, set up Linux in a virtual machine. If that doesn't make sense, then try to set up the remote session protocol supported by your OS.) If you don't, oh well.

4. Buy a pre-paid credit card or some such, and order a raspberry pi. Don't tell your parents. Have it shipped to a PO box if you can afford one or a friends house. (Ask your friend for permission first obviously.) Set it up where nobody will find it with thrift shop gear. (Old tv, mouse, keyboard.) A friends house might work if you can ask to come over a lot. If you don't have somewhere to set it up (where they won't find it), don't bother.

You sound like a resourceful person, I'm sure you can figure something out.

[0]: If you haven't yet, learn to touch type. Dvoraks or Qwerty. This will give you the superpower of being able to type a document without looking at the screen. Or more importantly, type a document while looking at something else. Giving you transcription superpowers. I recommend gtypist.

Happy Hacking!