I started just right I suppose. My first modem was 28k. Windows 95 was just out (I had used win 3.1 a bit before that). Slackware was my Linux distribution. I was in high school. Doom was just out. We made Doom maps and dialed each other up to play. My kids are 14 and 9. I am CTO at my own small consulting firm now.

I’m no industry titan, but I have been around the block. Many came before me, but I have seen the modern Internet rise from almost nothing. We all have to start somewhere. I still use Reddit, guess I am too old for it, but I started when it was all about programming, and had just launched. I was a developer first, but also a sysadmin for a startup. Did that from 2000-2006, before we called it DevOps. Someone had to keep the servers up. I was huge into MUDs and coding/building them... I actually kept track of a couple of the people I played with over all these years, but only a couple.

YC, Paul Graham, and the entrepreneurial spirit is built into me now. I read every Pg essay when it came out. In my career I only worked at a larger company for a few years in my 22 year career in tech this far. Tech is weird some days.

Now get off my lawn and all you kids stop using NoSQL and JavaScript and quit writing electron apps ;)