nintendo generation, and completely self taught. Started with an avistar, was bored after a couple of weeks, moved on to a couple of sig SE's and now a U can do... I have never dumb thumbed a model into the ground, all crashes are due to mechanical failures of some sort. I'm also avid FPS gamer and computer programmer, but also race mountain bikes, someone else mentioned biking helping...

anyway, what I think helped me more is that I've always had some sort of rc model around since age 5. control reversal isn't something that ever crossed my mind, orientation is automatic.