There was once a time – 15-20 years ago – when I was always fiddling with a computer in my spare time. I was heavily into Fidonet, and an early adopter of the internet. To my pride, I designed a little bit of software that was quickly picked by others in the UK wishing to bridge between Fidonet and the internet (the actual programming was kindly done by John English); and my old Fidonet system, Minstrel’s Hall, provided many of my friends with their first internet address.
Then a little later, I taught myself php and perl (in that order, strangely), and went to work designing modifications for systems like phpBB and Wordpress, not to mention the now-long-defunct Filklore Music Store.