I'll have a go.
I can't remember when I first started reading up about markets, but I think the first book I read was A Random Walk on Wall Street. Since then I've devoured lots, but usually from an investing perspective. I first got into the market near the bottom of the .com crash. I played around some, lost a bit, made a bit, kept adding money each month, pouring every extra cent into stocks. At some point a friend needed an investor and the market wasn't doing too much, so I exited. A year later I had 100% profit. You know - if I'd stayed in the market and just left it, I would have made much more! Had Sasol at R90, top 40 at 7000-ish, IIRC.
Anyway, around 2007 I'd been aching to get back in, but I was very suspicious of the rally, though. All assets going nuts. All I knew was equities, not SSF etc, so no way to short it, and couldn't trust going long. I only got the idea of SSF from a friend pretty late, so have been working out my own system since.
My aim, though, is to have the majority in "fire-and-forget" insanely good long-term investments, with as close to Warren Buffett's approach as I can do. I'll use SSF as a booster when great opportunities present themselves.