In my case, the simple lack of money was my teacher. (That, and the internet) I couldn't afford a computer, but I wanted one badly. I learned used Xboxes ($100

In my case, the simple lack of money was my teacher. (That, and the internet) I couldn't afford a computer, but I wanted one badly. I learned used Xboxes ($100) could run Linux with some elbow grease. So I put together every dime I had and bought one. A week later the hard drive died, so I had to learn to replace that (found an e-waste spindle, learned to hack the Xbox to accept unlocked drives). And it turns out the VGA adapter had to be hand-made with parts from DigiKey. Then old corroded traces started failing. Debacle after debacle, I killed that thing and resurrected it, again and again. Viola, I began to learn tremendous amounts about things that had before been utter black boxes. Probably the single biggest impetuous to me working in technology.