We all walk on different paths, some may be true to you and mine would be different in the matter of perspective based on the data and resources that is available to us.

Like I said, in my opinion based on my journey 5 years ago, let's not forget the differences we are living in like countries, accessibility and the available resources we have when we started.

Programming communities existed long before its true, but I didn't saw any because I didn't know what to look for and I didn't know such thing exist at that time.

Books yes, love them, but I couldn't afford them at that time :) how much more bootcamps.

Different journeys, different perspective, we cannot choose our starting line, only the finish line.

You studied Computer Science, congrats good for you.