I can tell you. I first used Logo Writer when I was in 2nd grade (in the 80s) and I thought it was cool. But, the "usefulness" of computers never hit me until the following year when a teacher brought in the Turtle robot and I made my logo writer "program" write to actual paper. Everything fell into place from there. I went to the library and got books to learn BASIC. I went to computer "camps" in the summer at the local university. Etc. I've been a professional programmer now for 15 years. Taking programs from the screen to hardware is what got me really excited.