This reminds me so much of the early internet hacker culture that it's actually triggering nostalgia. What a great write-up! When ESR talked about becoming a

This reminds me so much of the early internet hacker culture that it's actually triggering nostalgia. What a great write-up! When ESR talked about becoming a hacker (hacker in the Hacker News sense), this is the type of person he was talking about. The combination of curiosity, dedication, and technical ability is exceedingly rare, and majorly impressive. Thanks so much for sharing!