[wiz21c]

Definitely. I had an hacker's mind from age 0. Mind you, I felt in love with hackers of my time when I was 12 years old. But unfortunately, I had to learn by myself. I didn't have a mentor around me (and my parents could not keep up) for a number of years. Eventually, I ended in the demo scene and there I found a bit of help. It took me so much time. And when I compare to other hackers who had friends in the business, they just learned faster than me :-(

So, even though it sounds obvious : the number one priority is meeting other people, sharing information. Social skills are sooo important if you're not an absolute genius...