[walking]

I was in my late twenties before I started programming professionally. Always had super crappy jobs before that, and grew up without a lot of money, so I ended up with a fix-all-the-things mindset. I'd think something like "well, I don't have hundreds of dollars to get my truck's ignition fixed. Guess it's time to learn how ignition systems work and fix it myself before I need to goto work on monday."

It could be super stressful, but I appreciate knowing those things now that I could afford to ignore them if I wanted to.

I actually ended up getting a side job working for a stage magician because I worked for the moving company that moved his stuff. I overheard them talking about a motorcycle they used in a trick, and how it wasn't working. I told them how they could fix it and they asked if I wanted to make some extra cash fixing other tricks, which by their nature were all cobbled together one-offs.