Piercing the mystery doesn't diminish the magic
I was born at the tail end of the 1980s and can't remember a time before personal computers.
Growing up, I was surrounded by computers and coding from a young age - My family was somewhat atypical in that I had parents and grandparents who were already very experienced with computers. So I must have been exposed to the concept of a computer program quite early on.
Perhaps it was when I first saw a computer address me by name; that day was wild!
Someone, possibly a friend's brother, must have written a program that asks the user for their name then later displays a customized message that includes the user's name. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. How does this box on a desk know who I am!?
I was hooked.
Over the subsequent years, I learned how to code, and gradually the mystery gave way to understanding. But the magic never waned - and there were always more secrets to unlock.
Like how the web worked. In hindsight, the extent of my initial misunderstanding was almost comical. I think I wanted to build an internet chat app, but the only tool I had significant experience with was Visual Basic. There must have been some way to save a VB app as a web page (I really can't remember the details), so I did that, then fired up my browser expectantly. It didn't work, of course.
It must be possible though… I've used internet chat…
And I think that's what spurred me on - the realization that I had the power to recreate, albeit in a small way, systems that appeared magical. There was mystery, sure, but there didn't have to be mystery. That's one of the great beauties of computing.