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RomanDavis comments on Checking for the Programming Gear - Less Wrong
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I don't know whether the existence of such a gear is plausible. But to your point, I might say:
"Try this. If you're having fun an hour from now, you have the gear. Good luck!"
As for on-ramps, I would start with HTML as an introduction to thinking like a programmer, and then transitioning over to Python. But opinions vary, so seek the advice of more experienced programmers than myself.
Someone awsome on here recommended Learn Python the Hard Way. I've had school off since Tuesday and I've been kicking it's ass since. It's really fun. I thought it'd be neat to test out what my abilities are like on Project Euclid.
I've solved three so far. I'm particularly proud of coming up with a program to do the Fibonacci sequence. It's a simple program, and probably not as efficient as it could be, but i didn't look at any spoilers and feel like a diabolical genius after having solved it.
Link: Learn Python the Hard Way
That's great! I hope you keep working on it.
I assume you mean Project Euler? If so, I heartily second that, and I have introduced at least one person to programming (in Python) via it, and she was extremely enthusiastic about it. (Admittedly, she was/is extremely mathematically talented, so there is a confounding factor there.)
For me, this is one of the best bits about solving Project-Euler-esque questions: often one can make progress and solve a question with a relatively simple (but still really cool!) program, but there's always more tricks to learn (how to cut the run time in half, how to half the number of lines of code, etc etc.), and so more chances to be a diabolical genius!
And then coming back to a few of the questions and solving them in completely different language to see how neat/fast/short one can make the program that way (for people who started with Python, this might mean experimenting with C or assembly or a lisp or Haskell).