I belonged to the first generation of kids who had programming as a hobby. Started programming BASIC from a book that I found in the library when I was 12 or so (on paper, no cheap computers then), then got a ZX81 at the beginning of the 80s, and then went on to an Amstrad CPC, and finally an IBM PC. I also got to play with a PDP 11 on the way. Later studied philosophy, but kept the hobby, then worked professionally as a programmer for 20 years, until I got a chance to work as a philosopher. I dropped a safe, lifelong IT job that was going nowhere in the long run, for an extremely insecure philosophy lecturer job in China. The call of adventure, I guess. In my heart, though, I'm still a programmer. I enjoy hacker humour, not philosopher humour. In my free time, I read programming books, not philosophy books. When you started programming at 12, it stays with you for life. I'm now a programmer working as a philosopher, and if I do something else I'll still be a programmer doing something else. There's no regret, just a feeling of belonging to a particular culture, and this will not change, no matter what I do. That's why I read HN, and still play around with some of the new tools, frameworks, languages etc. But the philosophy job was too good to miss.