I had lots of fun coding mIRC scripts, and then also some standalone IRC bots, when I was 14 or so (including an ambitious unfinished project of an IRC-based MUD, as well as a quite successful conversational chatbot that many people downloaded and used to fool others, especially with the option of posing as a girl which I added as an afterthought, but was what the overwhelming majority of users chose). I'm now a CS professor, and several others I know who had the same hobby at the time in my city or whereabouts have rather successful careers as tech entrepeneurs or professors :)

I paid the mIRC license like 15 years later, by the way... better late than never... that guy really deserved it.