This. The whole reason I got into technology was because I needed to know it to make bigger and better games work. I started playing "electronic" games at a v

This. The whole reason I got into technology was because I needed to know it to make bigger and better games work. I started playing "electronic" games at a very, very early age (4 or 5) and at the time that meant pinball (with rotary dials for score)... then I saw the first video games appear next to my pinball machines... and then the very first home consoles appeared. By that time I was old enough to bug my parents enough to get one (Fairchild Channel F)... and things escalated from there to a Vic-20 (and so forth). The first programming I did was to make a game in BASIC that a friend bought and was broken work (simple syntax error). I learned networking (when PC networking meant IPX, BNC connectors, etc) to get the first multiplayer games up and running. I had no intent to be a professional technologists/developer. It was a means to an end. Much later, after I had entry level tech jobs, I honed the skills and knowledge to really be a professional... honestly, it came pretty easy once I realized I actually kinda liked the field in my mid-20s.