[identity profile] maradydd.livejournal.com 2009-12-27 06:16 pm (UTC)(link)
No, it was because when I was eight my dad brought home a PCjr in a box.

"What's that, Daddy?" I asked.

"It's a computer," he said.

"How does it work?" I asked.

He handed me the manual and said, "Find out!"

I learned how to ride a bike when I was nine.
Edited 2009-12-27 18:17 (UTC)

[identity profile] kragen.livejournal.com 2009-12-28 07:53 am (UTC)(link)
Haha! Very similar to my own story.

...any number of other eight-year-olds, though, had that same opportunity and didn't make it through enough of the manual to do anything interesting.

[identity profile] maradydd.livejournal.com 2009-12-28 11:01 am (UTC)(link)
Point. Though it's really only been recently that this has become evident, since the people I was hanging out with in high school had not only done the same thing with respect to BASIC, but also understood modem init strings and spoke enough assembler to be dangerous and had assorted other skills that had me thinking I was just average. After high school, I didn't touch an interpreter again until grad school, a good ten years later.