I had one (just one) formal semester in C. We were expected to pick it up as we went along and this was a long time ago. I did my defense almost exactly 27 years ago. By then, I'd already started on our first contract. Yup... I had my first contract before I'd defended my dissertation. Times were a bit different back then. I just happened to be in the right place and time. I worked with Dr. Lorenz during my undergrad and that's what piqued my interest in Chaos Theory. I knew I wanted to find something else to apply it to, and traffic data just happened to be plentiful and free. It also was timed at just the right point where the price for compute cycles dropped as they became more powerful and ubiquitous. To make it even better, MA was in the planning stages for a big project. A politician promised that they'd not stop traffic during the construction. That meant constant modeling for ever-changing plans. It was lucrative and enabled near-immediate expansion. That kinda sums up my whole life. It's been pretty much dumb luck and a willingness to just say to hell with it and go all in. I tend to throw myself at stuff with great passion and I certainly worked hard - but I didn't work as hard as a guy who lugs concrete forms. I know, 'cause I spent a summer lugging concrete forms. Fuck that.