I was fortunate to grow up during a time when Alan Kay was a well-known figure in the personal computing world, and while what he said didn't make sense to me at the time, it still interested me intensely, and I always wondered what he meant by what he said. Strangely enough, looking back on my younger experience with computers, I think I actually did get a little bit of what he was talking about. It's just that I came to understand that little bit independently from listening to him. I didn't realize he was talking about the same thing. It wasn't until I got older, and got to finally see his talks through internet video that I finally started seeing that, and realizing more things by listening to him at length. Having the chance to correspond with him, talk about those things more in-depth, helped as well.

The way I look at it is just take in how fortunate you are to have your realizations when you have them (I've had my regrets, too, that I didn't "get" them sooner), and take advantage of them as much as you can. That's what I've tried to do.