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Comment by petercooper | Hacker News Reader

This reminded me of something the other way around.

Back in 1998, I was on summer break before going to college. My parents said I had to get a summer job, so I got an entry level PR job at a Web design agency (new media, baby!) in London. Somehow, within a few weeks I was attending recruitment interviews. One totally normal looking guy came in, sat down, and after a quick introduction the CEO asked him what his background was. The guy jumped up, shouted "you can go f!@k yourselves!!" and ran out slamming the door. Never saw him again.

I was only at the agency a month in the end, but just the crazy things I saw there could fill a book. In hindsight, I regret quitting.

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At my first web job, the week I started there was an empty desk alongside mine. The other employees spoke of its absent occupant as though he was a bit of a curiosity (like they could talk - you could write a sitcom about that place).

He eventually returned from leave and I found out why he was the strange one even in comparison to them: he was over 60 years old, still lived with his mother, had some penchant for buying any food that was on sale (even if he never ate it, and even to the point where he was buying more freezers to store it!) and his recent leave was granted after he set himself on fire in bed. He also had an uncontrollable giggle.

Those were the days!

They were the days! The oddest thing is I've Googled about 10 names from the late 90s Web design days and haven't found a single person. I can't imagine what they're all up to now but it doesn't seem to be the modern Web development industry, that's for sure. Were the late 90's "new media" bunch really a wackier, more diverse lot than we are now?

Not a personal contact, but Jeffrey Zeldman, who I used to read about when I was finishing high school, is still around 15 years later.

I worked with Jeffrey in the late 90s, 'new media' days. Nice guy. Not sure if he was wacky as I'm apparently wacky myself.

My weirdest disappearing story...

A work mate (not web, Linux/Unix/3D programmer) was made superfluous ten years ago.

He was cool and we others missed him when he totally disappeared. (We also missed his incredible music collection with technical death metal, weird folk and improvised jazz.)

Then, years later, I Googled his name among the credits of a game.

When people disappear, they might not have died -- it might be worse... they might be developing games. :-)

I met him last year when I traveled to where he is living now; like most everyone else he had burned out doing games.

Hmm, I'll send an email and see if he's collected himself and is back doing weird hacking...

I guess people I know might be telling disappearing stories about me, since when I got ill a bunch of years ago.

I think they were wackier. When I got into Web (95/96, though did some new media stuff a couple years earlier) almost anyone already in the field had moved across from another career path because there simply weren't established training pathways for young students. If you were a strong graphic designer, you stayed in graphic design. Whereas, if you were a desktop publishing hack who was a mediocre designer but didn't make a concise type-setter, then learning PageMill and so on was for you.

> some penchant for buying any food

> set himself on fire in bed

> uncontrollable giggle

I wonder, what could possibly lead to such things?

Living with one's mother?

In a previous job there was a system similar to JIRA that sent out e-mail notifications on new bugs and so on. Each employee was also represented by a ticket with contact information and so on.

Less than a week into starting this job, I received an automated message saying that "Ticket 1234 Fred Bloggs has been deleted". At the same time, the guy got up, left and never returned...

can you think of any strange interpretations of "what is your background"?

like, could he have thought it was a question about his ethnicity, or anything other than career history?

Good point, but I wasn't quoting verbatim - it was 12 years ago.. It was similar or "what are your qualifications?" A basic interview question, in any case :-) (FWIW, the guy was tall, white, English, in his 20s - not a typical group to be sensitive over identity issues, but who knows :-))

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