Tim Sweeney

I had a brother, Steve Sweeney, who was 16 years older than me. At some point when I was a little kid, he went off to work in California for a tech company, and he'd gotten one of the first IBM PCs. So for one summer, I think I was about 11, I went to visit him in California. It was my first trip away from my family, just to hang out with him.

I had a brother, Steve Sweeney, who was 16 years older than me. At some point when I was a little kid, he went off to work in California for a tech company, and he'd gotten one of the first IBM PCs. So for one summer, I think I was about 11, I went to visit him in California. It was my first trip away from my family, just to hang out with him.

I had a brother, Steve Sweeney, who was 16 years older than me. At some point when I was a little kid, he went off to work in California for a tech company, and he'd gotten one of the first IBM PCs. So for one summer, I think I was about 11, I went to visit him in California. It was my first trip away from my family, just to hang out with him.

He had this brand new IBM computer, and I learned to program over the course of a few days in BASIC. I was just blown away. with the capabilities of computers at the time. It was unbelievable what they could accomplish. And I was hooked from that point onward and very much wanted to be a programmer.

He had this brand new IBM computer, and I learned to program over the course of a few days in BASIC. I was just blown away. with the capabilities of computers at the time. It was unbelievable what they could accomplish. And I was hooked from that point onward and very much wanted to be a programmer.

He had this brand new IBM computer, and I learned to program over the course of a few days in BASIC. I was just blown away. with the capabilities of computers at the time. It was unbelievable what they could accomplish. And I was hooked from that point onward and very much wanted to be a programmer.

Yeah, it's funny. I have a perfectly vivid memory of all of the first things I learned to program. I have a hard time remembering people's names, but code really sticks with me. Every step and every challenge, there were lessons learned. Some of which I've come to realize were just me getting over some learning hurdles, but other things were actually shortcomings of programming languages.

Yeah, it's funny. I have a perfectly vivid memory of all of the first things I learned to program. I have a hard time remembering people's names, but code really sticks with me. Every step and every challenge, there were lessons learned. Some of which I've come to realize were just me getting over some learning hurdles, but other things were actually shortcomings of programming languages.

Yeah, it's funny. I have a perfectly vivid memory of all of the first things I learned to program. I have a hard time remembering people's names, but code really sticks with me. Every step and every challenge, there were lessons learned. Some of which I've come to realize were just me getting over some learning hurdles, but other things were actually shortcomings of programming languages.

And the realization that there are actually better ways. And when a programmer is learning to program for the first time, a lot of what they're facing isn't the challenge of learning a new art. It's the friction introduced by failures of programming language design.

And the realization that there are actually better ways. And when a programmer is learning to program for the first time, a lot of what they're facing isn't the challenge of learning a new art. It's the friction introduced by failures of programming language design.

And the realization that there are actually better ways. And when a programmer is learning to program for the first time, a lot of what they're facing isn't the challenge of learning a new art. It's the friction introduced by failures of programming language design.

And so I've constantly come back to those early lessons there as I've progressed and done more and more things, including building programming languages.

And so I've constantly come back to those early lessons there as I've progressed and done more and more things, including building programming languages.

And so I've constantly come back to those early lessons there as I've progressed and done more and more things, including building programming languages.

Yeah, in the early days, I wrote a little bit of everything. I wrote some games. The first game I wrote on the Apple II was, since I only knew how to program in text mode, the computer would throw asterisks across the screen. They'd flow from left to right, and you'd have a parenthesis on the right-hand side of the screen. It looked like a baseball mitt, and you're supposed to catch the asterisks.

Yeah, in the early days, I wrote a little bit of everything. I wrote some games. The first game I wrote on the Apple II was, since I only knew how to program in text mode, the computer would throw asterisks across the screen. They'd flow from left to right, and you'd have a parenthesis on the right-hand side of the screen. It looked like a baseball mitt, and you're supposed to catch the asterisks.

Yeah, in the early days, I wrote a little bit of everything. I wrote some games. The first game I wrote on the Apple II was, since I only knew how to program in text mode, the computer would throw asterisks across the screen. They'd flow from left to right, and you'd have a parenthesis on the right-hand side of the screen. It looked like a baseball mitt, and you're supposed to catch the asterisks.

That was my very first game. It took about a couple hours to build and tune, and I went from there. But I built a lot of things. I built... at different points. I built a programming language and a full compiler for a language like Pascal because I didn't know where you went to buy one of those. So I made my own. And one of the fun things of that time was bulletin boards.

That was my very first game. It took about a couple hours to build and tune, and I went from there. But I built a lot of things. I built... at different points. I built a programming language and a full compiler for a language like Pascal because I didn't know where you went to buy one of those. So I made my own. And one of the fun things of that time was bulletin boards.