What did it for me is not repeatable today. Started working as a developer in 1981: my first decade and a half or so without any stackoverflow or google or web

What did it for me is not repeatable today. Started working as a developer in 1981: my first decade and a half or so without any stackoverflow or google or web or even open source code. I had to learn everything myself (other than the occasional book, article or journal). Of course I have no desire to do this again, but it forced me to become inventive and creative instead of just search-copy-paste-ive.