Learning to Code before & during the AI Revolution - Part 1 - Before the Great Coding Madness

Before AI could generate software on demand, learning to code meant learning slowly, visibly, and often imperfectly. Constraints were everywhere: limited memory, slow processors, scarce documentation, and no safety net of tutorials or instant answers. This part looks at what it was like to encounter computing as a teenager, how early machines shaped curiosity, and why effort and understanding were inseparable. This is not nostalgia for its own sake, but context for how a generation learned to think in systems.