You can specialize in engineering long before college. I was writing programs for our home computer at age 12. I'd bet that more than half the people reading this started out the same way.
In the specific case of computer hacking, this works - because even professional-level computer work doesn't require any equipment that a twelve-year-old cannot get. People in other fields aren't so lucky: You really can't learn much about the reality of practicing law, or medicine, or manufacturing from books or websites. You kind of have to learn these things on the job.
Why are so many tech companies founded by people in their twenties? Because software is one of the few fields where a twenty-two year old can have more than ten years of experience.
Of course, even young hackers face problems. They're still treated like children. Back when I was young, teens were rarely exposed to real mentors, taught real computer science, given real tasks, or paid real money. The web has helped to change a lot of this - on the internet nobody knows you're a teenager - which explains why young people are the web's most enthusiastic users.
In the specific case of computer hacking, this works - because even professional-level computer work doesn't require any equipment that a twelve-year-old cannot get. People in other fields aren't so lucky: You really can't learn much about the reality of practicing law, or medicine, or manufacturing from books or websites. You kind of have to learn these things on the job.
Why are so many tech companies founded by people in their twenties? Because software is one of the few fields where a twenty-two year old can have more than ten years of experience.
Of course, even young hackers face problems. They're still treated like children. Back when I was young, teens were rarely exposed to real mentors, taught real computer science, given real tasks, or paid real money. The web has helped to change a lot of this - on the internet nobody knows you're a teenager - which explains why young people are the web's most enthusiastic users.