Wow you're young! You're right in-between my brother and myself.
Yes, I played with that VIC-20 as well but didn't own one. Same for the ZX Spectrum, ZX 81, BBC Micro, TI 99, and others.
Like you, I learned so much from all that tinkering and translated that to decades of income from "the business", in my case as a business/IT consultant, trainer and project manager. My customers were very happy, I was super bored and not happy, still hard working and giving my all, resulting in burnout. I'm glad I'm out and will never be back.
I should have stayed with the creative computer spirit just as back then, and am happy to now stick my toe in those waters again. Carefully.
Indeed,
times as you say 🙂.
HZ
PS I can't seem to get that emoji in normal size. Oh well...