A bit of background: I grew up in Brazil between the years transitioning from full protectionism (import substitution) to a more freeing trade economy.
When I was around 9 I discovered that the videogame my dad had, a Gradiente Expert, could boot into some kind of BASIC REPL. The machine was a clone of the MSX re-branded in the Brazilian market to be allowed within the import substitution policy.
I had barely learnt to read but I got very, very excited seeing the command line pop-up. My dad worked in the telecom industry, and I had seen him many times working on a command line. I flipped through the manual and eventually figured out how to make the computer write characters on the screen.
From then on I spent years obsessed with learning how to program on the MSX, then on the 386 running MS-DOS at home, eventually Win95 appeared, and since my dad worked in telecom we were some of the first ones I knew to get an internet connection.
On the web I learnt HTML, CGI, then ASP, and later PHP. I think I was about 12-13 when I tried to learn C/C++ for modding games, some 3D modeling, etc., eventually culminating with me getting a job as an intern/youth apprentice scheme at 15-16 to help programming a factory's intranet systems to comply with ISO9001.
My dad never really pushed me to work with computers or anything, I think I was just a very curious kid who loved science, and also tinkering and building stuff. I realised only later in my 30s how it all connected, building with coding was probably immensely satisfying for me as a kid, very fast feedback on what works or not, many puzzles to solve, and virtually free of expenses that I couldn't afford.
When I was around 9 I discovered that the videogame my dad had, a Gradiente Expert, could boot into some kind of BASIC REPL. The machine was a clone of the MSX re-branded in the Brazilian market to be allowed within the import substitution policy.
I had barely learnt to read but I got very, very excited seeing the command line pop-up. My dad worked in the telecom industry, and I had seen him many times working on a command line. I flipped through the manual and eventually figured out how to make the computer write characters on the screen.
From then on I spent years obsessed with learning how to program on the MSX, then on the 386 running MS-DOS at home, eventually Win95 appeared, and since my dad worked in telecom we were some of the first ones I knew to get an internet connection.
On the web I learnt HTML, CGI, then ASP, and later PHP. I think I was about 12-13 when I tried to learn C/C++ for modding games, some 3D modeling, etc., eventually culminating with me getting a job as an intern/youth apprentice scheme at 15-16 to help programming a factory's intranet systems to comply with ISO9001.
My dad never really pushed me to work with computers or anything, I think I was just a very curious kid who loved science, and also tinkering and building stuff. I realised only later in my 30s how it all connected, building with coding was probably immensely satisfying for me as a kid, very fast feedback on what works or not, many puzzles to solve, and virtually free of expenses that I couldn't afford.