[ninalanyon]

I think that in some senses it was easier in most of the previous century simply because there were fewer distractions. A young person (or indeed any person) interested in science, engineering, literature could spend hours at the local public library digging into whatever subject interested them without that nagging feeling that they were missing out on something all the time. We didn't have that firehose of interesting stuff just a click away from us all the time.