I’m 38. I write Java for a living. I lead teams. I review code. I move tickets. It pays well.

But none of that is what got me into this.

What got me into this was the thrill of cracking something open that wasn’t supposed to be touched. Reversing binaries. Writing cheats. Hacking games. Breaking stuff and not always putting it back together. That’s what made me really excited about software engineering. Solving the most difficult problems. Understanding the code which initially seemed impossible to master.