I am envious too. When I was young, even younger than Bryan's age, I had grown a strong interest in electronics. But I was limited by a lot of things:
1. Breadboards are the best thing I can use, to create a PCB, I can only rely on manually soldering connections on a general-purpose PCB (the kind of PCB with many holes). And I had never heard of EDA at that time (~2008-12ish)
2. Being raised in a family where my parents never went to college, they can't give me any help and advice in study, let alone the funding. It took me 2 years of begging to convince my parents to buy me a computer, which already costs them 2 months of wages.
3. In the small town in middle west China where I grown up, I searched every corner of the library, only to find 2 or 3 books that are related to electronics, and I spent all my time after school studying them. I can't find anyone who are also interested in the same things I was doing, I was all on my own.
What happened then?
1. I studied hard on the only books I found, and learned about C51 microcontrollers, and that introduced me to the world of programming
2. I took a selective examination and went to one of the most prestigious high school in the capital of the province (Changsha, Hunan), and because of my intests in programming, I took part in olymptics in informatics, which is competitive algorithmic contest, and got the entrance to one of the best universities of China
3. After graduation and 5 years of working as a professional programmer, I was finally able to give myself a good environment for what I loved as a kid, something people like Bryan would already have when they were born. I bought myself 3d printing machines, and learned EDA and found JLC, PCBWays are so helpful.
I really wish I could have all these when I was young, but I think I'll give myself all the things my parents can't, and make myself a kid again, to learn and to play.
1. Breadboards are the best thing I can use, to create a PCB, I can only rely on manually soldering connections on a general-purpose PCB (the kind of PCB with many holes). And I had never heard of EDA at that time (~2008-12ish)
2. Being raised in a family where my parents never went to college, they can't give me any help and advice in study, let alone the funding. It took me 2 years of begging to convince my parents to buy me a computer, which already costs them 2 months of wages.
3. In the small town in middle west China where I grown up, I searched every corner of the library, only to find 2 or 3 books that are related to electronics, and I spent all my time after school studying them. I can't find anyone who are also interested in the same things I was doing, I was all on my own.
What happened then?
1. I studied hard on the only books I found, and learned about C51 microcontrollers, and that introduced me to the world of programming
2. I took a selective examination and went to one of the most prestigious high school in the capital of the province (Changsha, Hunan), and because of my intests in programming, I took part in olymptics in informatics, which is competitive algorithmic contest, and got the entrance to one of the best universities of China
3. After graduation and 5 years of working as a professional programmer, I was finally able to give myself a good environment for what I loved as a kid, something people like Bryan would already have when they were born. I bought myself 3d printing machines, and learned EDA and found JLC, PCBWays are so helpful.
I really wish I could have all these when I was young, but I think I'll give myself all the things my parents can't, and make myself a kid again, to learn and to play.