It sounds like you were in a much richer information landscape than the one I found myself in, indeed! At some point I got access to a book about Z80 assembly and it had that kind of material in it, but I didn't have the ability to interpret it. And the grocery store definitely had absolutely nothing relevant to my computing interests.
But assembly is the next installment.
https://blog.startifact.com/posts/teenage-programmer-call-of.../
Two things:
One is you had that friend! I had a few. Some had multiple computers, others just the one and maybe it was the same machine you had! Where that happened, it really helped get into computing!
And the other thought:
Your revelation! YES! Everyone who ends up understanding assembly language has some form of what you wrote happen to them, and it often means how one sees computing is never the same
We, and by that I mean my peer group and I through a lot of discussion, often near blackboards...
Blackboard you say? Indeed! Those boards one would use with chalk. None of this whiteboard rubbish thank you very much!
...that resulted in a new understanding.
Computers really only do a few things; namely, add numbers, copy numbers, and perform bit or logic operations on numbers.
All of it comes down to that!
You subtract by adding, for example. And those two mean one can multiply and divide, and so it goes, until it sinks in. Adds per second. They are not much, but a few hundred thousand of them happening per second can make magic happen!
And that kind of thing happened for you. Someone shared it and you began to internalize it.
There is one more magic conversation that tends to close the circle, and that is assembly language is all about the [redacted]. And that may have happened, but we won't know until you write that part, will we?
I have some stuff to say, but won't because that would not be appropriate in this context. And I am selfish hoping to read your experiences and enjoy them proper.
:)
That stuff was a big help. Interpreting other material, such as CPU datasheets became possible.
I got my first disassembler, for example, out of COMPUTE magazine as a BASIC language type in listing!
The Apple 2 contained a mini assembler, and the two got several of us writing our own stuff.
And there are multiple parts to this. Our peers and maybe mentors can really matter.
It always seemed unfair to teenage me that the C$ price was 20-40% more than the USD price.
Otherwise, same. Or Powells tech books! That store was amazing! Technical books of all kinds and on any topic for the reading or buying. I did a lot of reading in that store.