When I was 10, my brother pestered my parents to buy us a computer, an Apple //e. He lost interest quickly, but then I picked up a manual. When I look back at

When I was 10, my brother pestered my parents to buy us a computer, an Apple //e. He lost interest quickly, but then I picked up a manual. When I look back at how focused I was then, I feel envy. I would just say "I am going to write a program that does my Latin homework" and actually deliver. Of course not with professional results, but credible attempts for someone not even in their teens, working only in Applesoft BASIC. But I had no idea that what I was doing was valuable or unusual. I had no friends or teachers who thought it was even interesting. I just thought I had a weird hobby. Which is why it was easy to quit. In pre-university classes, I found the programming courses boring and felt I was nothing like anybody who was taking those courses. So I turned my back on it and went for journalism and graphic design. It wasn't until the internet went mainstream in a big way that I found a tribe of programmers I could identify with. When I look back on my early years programming (from 10 to 14 or so), I also feel jealous for how un-self-conscious I was. I just did whatever I wanted. For instance, I produced hundreds of little programs to make pretty pictures with math. As an adult I struggle to reconcile my aesthetic and technical sides.