Programming-wise... when I was around 10 I had an old 80386 machine with MS-DOS, BASIC, Borland C++, Turbo Pascal and Windows 3.1. I learned to hack in BASIC pr

Programming-wise... when I was around 10 I had an old 80386 machine with MS-DOS, BASIC, Borland C++, Turbo Pascal and Windows 3.1. I learned to hack in BASIC pretty fast and made a good number of scripts and games for myself, and then I learned to optimize those since the computer was so slow, so that helped a lot. My dad used to teach stochastic processes at the university, so he would try and explain me set theory and complex numbers when I was 5 years old (and also, play Civ 1 with me!)... eventually, I finished high school when I was 14 and college (MSc in CS and applied math) when I was 19. So I'd say my parents have done a lot in making me interested; although they've never pushed it.