1. Started hacking the TI-82 in 7th grade while bored in math class. Moved on to TI-89 in 9th grade, and then "graduated" to assembly language so I could make b

1. Started hacking the TI-82 in 7th grade while bored in math class. Moved on to TI-89 in 9th grade, and then "graduated" to assembly language so I could make better games. I then moved on to "real" computers with C++, which seemed like an incredibly easy language after doing assembly! 2. I personally found those years hacking around with the TI calcs not knowing what the hell I was doing to be incredibly valuable. I think a lot of people try to learn the "right way" of doing things by reading about "design patterns", etc., but they never deeply understand the value of those ideas of structuring programs. By just hacking a lot and making tons of mistakes, I really learned the power of abstraction and how abstraction can be used or mis-used.