I would have done anything to program at seven. I knew that computer games were made by people (and sometimes, by a single person), and I was determined to do it, but nobody around knew how to get me started.

It wasn't till I was ten or eleven that a friend announced to me that he had found a program on his computer that would allow us to make video games (qbasic).

I think the thing I missed out on most is having a few more years of wildly creative programming without being encumbered by any ideas about the right way to program.