Around 8 I was copying the example programs from the GW-BASIC manual (especially the ones that involved graphics) on an MS-DOS 3.1 computer, then I was randomly

Around 8 I was copying the example programs from the GW-BASIC manual (especially the ones that involved graphics) on an MS-DOS 3.1 computer, then I was randomly modifying them to see what would happen... not exactly sure how I ended up learning how to program, but at 10 I was able to do simple programs in BASIC. I think that learning in an environment without a GUI was in the end very helpful. Of course in the beginning it was quite difficult, but very gratifying when I got something right.