I came from a liberal arts background (philosophy and writing), and got into programming when a friend was describing his work. He pointed me in the direction

I came from a liberal arts background (philosophy and writing), and got into programming when a friend was describing his work. He pointed me in the direction of Perl, and I went from there. I was fortunate to find a job at a startup doing a mix of front-end stuff and some Perl hacking, working under one of the founders who was also a self-taught hacker. It was very useful to work under a mentor.