[tarxvf]

I'm not so sure the line is that clear cut. How much hardware is useful today without software? Is VHDL software?

I started with software and have been expanding down the stack more and more, spinning some of my own (very basic) PCBs recently, and it's been a lot of fun. I think the other direction would have been harder, because the ~~core game loop~~ development cycle takes so much longer, and that would have made it hard for me personally to maintain motivation at the beginning.

Software by comparison has almost no barrier to entry and much faster iteration. It's also a lot harder to explain to my mom what I do.

I do think C was a great place to start. Going up and down from there is much easier than trying to go downstack from, e.g. javascript.