My family had two computers as I grew up - a 486 and a Pentium II. We were quite poor, and both purchases were a monumental event, made possible by unexpected windfalls. I shudder to think what would have happened if they broke prematurely, or the circumstances which led to them being purchased never came about.

Certainly my career would have been set back many years (I released my first commercial game - though it made little money - at 15).

I was fortunate enough to be a "have", and get the opportunity to learn computing from an early age. I'm a digital native. My proximity to the line of separation makes me think quite a bit about how much worse my life would be without that initial investment. Especially while I'm playing the guitar, which I picked up and enjoy playing badly as an adult (with the money I made from computing), but didn't have access to as a kid. If my talents were in music rather than computing, I'd be flipping burgers right now.

It's amazing to me that in this day and age you can get a computer good enough to do serious work on for the price of my last meal. You could learn to program, get contract work, and complete that work entirely from a Raspberry Pi (and a TV or second hand monitor, kb/mouse etc).

The dropping of the price of entry level computing has been happening for some time, but we really are to the point that no western kid is missing out due to the cost alone (there are unfortunately still other reasons). Computing has long celebrated its meritocratic nature, but being meritocratic for the middle class and up wasn't ever really something to be proud of. I'm pretty sure by that yardstick yacht racing is meritocratic, too.

The world will be such a rich place when each child has the ability to thoroughly search the space of what is potentially interesting to them, and have the means, encouragement and material available to pursue it while they are free from the constraints of adult life. I think we're making great progress there, and it's one of the only aspects of how we are progressing into the future that I am unreservedly excited about.

As countries get wealthier and costs continue to fall, the trend will continue globally. I fully expect to end my career being thoroughly outclassed by ultra talented new kids on the block from Cambodia and Ethiopia, born in a decade or two, and nothing could make me happier. (If at that point I turn into a grumpy old man that whines about it when it happens, please do the world a favor and just shoot me.)