I wrote my first program at age 13 and it looked something like this:

Look familiar? It is the quadratic formula from 8th grade algebra. On tests, one had to calculate the roots of quadratic equations, a tedious tasks that offers diminishing returns on learning.

Lazy and sleep deprived that I was, I figured out how to enter the formula into my calculator as a program and whizzed through homework. I still had to do everything by hand on tests. But one day, I suggested to my teacher that I be allowed to program on a school calculator during tests and turn it in as “work” for all my answers. Surprisingly, he let me do it and sleep at my desk afterwards. 

Necessity begets strengths out of weaknesses

I wrote my first program out of necessity. If I weren’t sleep deprived and good at math, I would have just did my homework and tests like everyone else did. But the lack of sleep and mediocre math skills, both weaknesses, forced me to approach my problem differently. It’s not just that I wanted it. I needed it. 

How many other kids ended up programming during tests like me? None. I guess they weren’t sleep deprived enough.