Other than general supportiveness of my interests, neither of my parents were in a position to do that. There are a lot of things where, if I had had someone kn

Other than general supportiveness of my interests, neither of my parents were in a position to do that. There are a lot of things where, if I had had someone knowledgeable sit down with me for an afternoon, I'd have been years ahead of where I'm at. I could have learned Pascal or C about five years earlier than I did, if someone had helped me set up Turbo Pascal and write a hello-world in it. Could have been breadboarding things earlier if I had known some basics like "which holes are connected in a breadboard." I really did just figure out most things on my own, through trial and error or old books. In an environment where most people either didn't care what I did or actively discouraged that kind of experimentation. Which is why I don't have a lot of patience for that argument up there: no, it's not privilege, anyone can do it, just most people don't.