When I was a kid, programming was something I did to screw around and procrastinate my real studies. I saw it as one or two steps up from video games or crosswo

When I was a kid, programming was something I did to screw around and procrastinate my real studies. I saw it as one or two steps up from video games or crossword puzzles on the spectrum from "waste of time" to "valuable self-development." My dad, who hated computers with a passion but could see them becoming more and more pervasive in society, always thought that being "good with computers" would be something I could fall back on if I had to. He was right. That's basically how I ended up in my first software development job, which I enjoyed enough that I eventually decided to pursue it as a career.