
For Farm and Family: Reflections on Making
I was eight years old when I wrote my first computer program. It was a random number generator—a small but sure victory for a young child. Sevens, ones, fives, eighteens (and who knows which number next?) were appearing on the screen in all their monochrome glory. I was elated by the fact that I had turned my idea into a reality: I had made something.
It was the beginning of a long career in high tech that would lead me to the unlikeliest of places: farming in rural Minnesota.