I don't think I'd recommend the learning environment I had 30+ years ago - there's just so much more information these days catering to all kinds of learners (whether you learn by reading, by watching, by doing). I was growing up in a Soviet/post-Soviet space with basically no access to help outside of peers/teachers and IDE help files. Books existed, but I didn't happen to run into any in my early coding years.

Back then, you really had to want to code. My first exposure to coding was at school where we had to use basic drawing commands (LINE, CIRCLE, etc) to draw a house. You'd write your program at home, and type it up in class next day. First assignment was to draw a house, which everyone accomplished with like six lines. I spent a whole afternoon coming up with two pages of code resulting in a 3D house with door, windows, chimney, and some scenery. And that's how I got hooked for life. Then came BASIC, Turbo Pascal, and the rest is history.

A lot of it was just banging my head on the table while exhausting every possibility. Some things don't change with time I suppose :)