[ins0mn1um]

Hello all! I've been looking in hacking for the past couple of months, learning some things here and there, doing some basic CTF's, but then I kinda just stopped after a bit due to not feeling like i was making any tangible progress. However, I get super invested into the stories of teen hackers who pull off some massive stunt, or the groups of people who start some super in depth online cryptographic puzzle, like Cicada 3301 and the BAYC, which sparks my interest right back up again. I've had a question of it all though; how "easy" is it to hack? Seemingly every teen hacker story starts the same; some 12 year old's parents got a computer, the kid was super interested in it, learns (something) about computers, and then by time they're 16 or 17, they're on the news after hacking Microsoft or some other big company, which seems pretty advanced to me, despite them only having like 3-4 years of experience at most. Hell, the guys who made the mirai botnet were between the ages of 18-20 when they made the malware, meanwhile I'm here at 19 trying to understand what a buffer overflow is! (finally understood what it was last week, thank god)
What I'm asking is:
Was it all hard work and constant grinding, or do you have to be a borderline genius to make that kind of progress? is it viable to study/learn for a couple hours a day, and make tangible progress after like a month or so? How can you determine your skill set from your progress; is there like a shift where you instinctively know you're no longer a script kiddie/beginner/intermediate? I am aware of most of what I don't know, which makes the journey to where i want to be seem like its forever away...

[InspectorGadget]

learns (something) about computers,

This is the key part, they didn't just learn something, they spent an unhealthy amount of time almost obssessed with learning it. And not just learning but practicing and gaining experience.

All you need to learn is enough to get you your basic qualifications from school etc, from there find a role and hopefully (not always) you manage to have somewhere that you can get real world, hands on experience. If you can prove that you can learn yourself and actively be interested in the overall topic, you'll over time become more and more experience. Just these last 6 months I have gone from 0 to decent in some skill I needed, but Ive spent 5 hours a day experiencing it real world.

Learn, practice, re-enforce the learning!

[Foop]

I think the major key factor is "interest" , trust me once you start learning and practicing, it's down the rabbit's hole

[Nomad.Null]

Being interested is a huge factor. Many guys are passionate about this stuff that wind up becoming influential or at the very least newsworthy in this field. Genius helps but isn't required. Most people who get a name for themselves in infosec simply love it the most.

Having mentorship and guidance is a big help, but genuinely if you simply stay driven and interested, you can learn how to do anything with computers. The potential is limitless.

You should consider talking to me if you want some help with drawing the map of your educational journey. I do mentorship here on HF to help people get a career in this field. See my signature.

[MONEYMEN720]

Can you kindly be my mentor? I am new and I am looking forward to know how to spam office 365 emails