Ian, I guess you're right about being self taught in the early days. If there were any computer science courses available when I was at Brown, I was unaware of them. I was in the ScB Biology program anyway.

My father introduced me to computers when I got back from Vietnam. He was a mechanical engineer and had been naval aviator (far left in photo at this link).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orbiter

I have an original print of the photo framed in my office (the one my father had in his office).

He founded a software company after the U.S. courts ordered the hardware manufacturers to unbundle software. I never got the chance to work for him.

He did set me up to succeed though. He taught me to reason and to read (using Samuel Elliott Morrison's Admiral of the Ocean Sea) before I'd even started elementary school. I was measured at 1200 wpm in the 8th grade.

I've read about every serious book on software that I could find. At present I have about 1400 books in my Kindle library. I'll be reading your current Medium articles soon.

Cheers,

-Dick-

https://medium.com/the-techlife/comments-on-great-designers-c7d99bc73e95