I started with computers in 1977 as a teenager and was promptly hired by someone at the local computer store to fix something and before the decade was out I was working professionally to write an operating system for a Motorola 6809 based "microcomputer" used in the real-time world of hardware control for running large ships, oil refineries and pipelines. When I was 19, in the early '80s, I joined Digital Equipment Corp and the rest, as they say, is history.

Notable, though, was being book-ended by two Turing Award winners, Jim Grey and Michael Stonebraker - one of whom I worked for and the other of whom worked for me!

Thanks, LetsEncrypters, yall are doing important work here, and if I can help, I will.