Throwing my story in the mix: I owned a 386 and a 486 when I was around 9. Hand me down computers. My family was poor and we didn't have the internet and I'm not sure it would have mattered if we did back then. I learned QBASIC and Dos from library books and help files. Made lots of text adventure games and later games with minor graphics. I'm a professional developer now (have been for 12 years). I know multiple languages including python and I still make games on the side as a hobby.

I keep seeing stories similar to mine. I really think we (humans) have lost something with new tech. Simple UI breeds users whereas hard seems to breed developers.

Edit: typed that out on my phone - made some typo fixes.

Also forgot to mention - I never went to school for CS and I dropped out of community college which I attended for graphic design.