Very similar situation. But we are kind of the exception. I just happened to start loving programming/hacking around 6th grade. I spent all my time doing that, mostly sometimes in secret to avoid being viewed as a 'nerd'. Although it paid off, I am just lucky my interest was what happens to be flourishing at the time.
Thank you for this. I don’t think OP realizes the immense luck involved in being a person who is naturally interested in (and also has access to) computers from a young age in the current era.
The trick is picking the right thing to be interested in, and the problem is that you can’t force yourself to be interested in something, nor can you predict whether that interest will be lucrative.
