Professional computer toucher and aspiring sailor.

I have the most mediocre origin story of all time. I was that kid that was smart enough to do anything I wanted in school, but instead I played Broodwar and Wolf:ET.

I come from a very blue-collar, single parent background, and as absurd as this sounds I didn't know what university was; I just knew that I didn't want to be a tradie (Aussie speak for tradesman). I ended up getting pretty decent marks in school finals and did a 10 minute search for "what job pays highest out of school". The answer was "investment banker". My next search was "what do I need to do to be an investment banker", and the internet helpfully told me "Degree in Law and Finance".

With my newfound wisdom I started studying Law and Finance at a campus with nice sandstone buildings. Much like highschool I did ok with not much effort, but my real interest was in making money. I worked in hospitality and bars for years, took some time off and played sport and just generally bummed around.

After burning time I went on a skateboard pub crawl with my mates, hit my head, had brain surgery, was in a coma for 8 days and woke up and couldn't read or write. What a wakeup call that was. I taught myself to read and write again, went back to university, felt at 23 that my degree was too far away so switched to accounting. I ended up getting a job as a management accountant which I hated, but in this company they had an unused intranet platform I became obsessed with. After 9 months of being an accountant I was transferred to the technology team.

I had never really liked computers beforehand; to me they were for porn and music. But once I was in the technology team computers had a life changing effect on me. I'd always felt that I "wasn't quite right" after my head injury ~1.5 years beforehand. Technology and programming in particular made me better. The computer is a cruel mistress, she cares not if you're tired, are having a bad day with your partner or need to go on a toilet break. She cares not if you're sick, depressed or anxious. She cares only if you're right. You can't bullshit Madame Computer, she lets you know exactly what you did. Not what you meant to do, not what you thought, not what you tried to do. Only what you did.

This absolute, brutal, merciless feedback was an almost spiritual awakening for me. I learned and learned for days and months and years, and built systems, teams and companies. The rigour of logic applied through code "fixed" my perceived internal damage from the brain injury. It lead me to pursue maths and logic in its purest form. Programming to me has been my spiritual awakening, and from the very first day I started over a decade ago until today I still love it to the core.

Our industry is infested with people that say something like: "I always loved building stuff from when I was a zygote. By the time I had become an embryo I'd written 9 compilers and reinvented LISP". I don't ever wanted to associated with that. I write this autobiographical snapshot as a defence against this.

This is my plea for help.
This is my story.