I like many people learned hacking as a teenager, I downloaded a bunch of freeware programs and games as a 13 year old, and one was a C compiler with a tutorial

I like many people learned hacking as a teenager, I downloaded a bunch of freeware programs and games as a 13 year old, and one was a C compiler with a tutorial. Really, I'm not sure how successful I am but I am gainfully employed I suppose, although I am a scientist, not really a developer. Thus, I suppose 1) was it, not really for the education only but because every job I've ever gotten was a connection from a mentor or scientist I met in grad school. Really the only "cold" job application I have since fought for (at least with great difficulty) was getting into graduate school for physics.