When I started my career, I was around 20 years old. I was, technically, a high school drop-out. I was white trash by any standard you want to use. But... I had been coding since I was 6 years old. By the time I entered 3rd grade, I was testing at college levels on every metric, math, English (though, I am looser with my use these days, lol), etc. I rarely went to school.