[hookshot]

I started learning HTML / PHP when I was 14. It took me 10 years to get decent at it. I dropped out of school when I was 15. I worked odd jobs; settled on working as a bike mechanic. Did that while doing random programming gigs on the side.

A few years ago I worked at a bike shop where I was salaried and the owner wasn't paying overtime. After working way too many unpaid hours in a week, a pointed out that it was illegal. Ended in a 'well prove it' argument so I did. Got my overtime, then left the company since it was super stressful and uncomfortable after that.

After that I pushed shopping carts at Lowes all day, then came home and practiced programming and did random Odesk jobs. It sucked. At this point I finally learned enough OOP and Mysql that everything clicked and I started learning a lot faster from there.

Another bike shop finally had an opening, so I went there. I moved on to a sailboat and saved enough money to try freelancing. I did freelance work for a while. After that I tried to start an IoT startup. The stress totally destroyed me and I was broke. After our big contract fell through, I applied to a local software company and got the job. Did that for a while and now I write software for a startup in the bay area.