> My dad wanted to encourage me but didn't know how, so he got me a C++ book from the library but it just made no sense and I couldn't get anywhere. Such a nos

> My dad wanted to encourage me but didn't know how, so he got me a C++ book from the library but it just made no sense and I couldn't get anywhere. Such a nostalgia trigger. My parents were not in IT, but had parent-friends (I was friends with a kid at school, my parents and the kid's parents became friends instead of reluctant chaperones) who were in hindsight mainframe system programmers. Ironically, from hearing about the work, my parents tried to dissuade me when they figured out I was fascinated. It wouldn't pay as well as a Real Engineering Job like mechanical/chemical/electrical yet would demand the same kind of rigor to study so why not just shoot for that REJ or chemistry/biology for med school? But man, as a kid, once you're hooked molding your own world in code, the amount of sheer mind-numbing work you're willing to go through to get that dopamine hit when some piece works makes a hash of any of that advice. The only block is just the ability to ask around. Elementary school was not the time for K&R or IBM PL/I product manuals or IBM 360 manuals with no adult supervision when I was given access to the mainframe. I. Was. So. Lost. Just the editor was hard to remember rules for. Back to BASIC on the rickety school teletype (driven by a timeshared mini) I went, and my befuddled parents had no further idea how to channel the energy I put into it without spending money, as well-intentioned as they were, so they got one of the new-fangled IBM PCs at a family budget-busting cost and let me have at it. Forever grateful to them they did that. The seed grew from there. I cannot wait to see what the kids with Google these days that get that same bug bite come up with in the next few decades. It will be glorious.