^just learned the secret of Bill Gates' success at programming: In 7th grade, he was put in a private school. this school had a summer camp program. In 8th grade, in 1968, they installed a "time share" computer, which VERY few places in the US had at that time. He and his friends took control of the room quickly enough. He LIVED in that computer room just about, all summer, after school, all weekend long. He reached 10,000 hours in no time. Expert programmer back when there was no such thing.^