I'm mentoring someone who's interested in #creativecoding and #generativeart, especially in the space of #gamedev and #alife. His biggest challenge is going beyond dabbling in private to actually following through with a project. I think this comes down to finding good tools for "quick and dirty" work, as well as finding venues or communities for sharing his output and getting feedback.
Does anyone have advice or pointers I could share with him? Boosts appreciated! 
@ngaylinn Just sliding in here.
I think JavaScript is a good start as it is so easy to get nice stuff on a screen and share with others. I know some people liked p5.js (a JavaScript version of the processing language, that many creative foders use). GSAP is a good library for making nice animations more easily.
Pico 8 is a fun "fantasy console" if you want limitation. It might be good as it prevents the project from growing.
Arduino is very good to do physical projects.
@hyper_defined_rat Yeah, I think web-based is the way to go, if possible! He's already doing browser-based stuff, and it ought to remove many hurdles around compatibility and distribution.
I think part of the challenge is finding the right tool set. Maybe some of what you recommend will catch his interest! He's been doing WebGPU stuff, and is excited about parallel computing, but that does complicate things quite a bit, unfortunately...
I hadn't thought of the pico8, but that's a cool idea. Not sure how he feels about retro-computing, but I'll ask. I know I'd have fun coaching him on that 
Nate Gaylinn
hyper_defined_rat