via Where There’s Smooke There’s Fire: Interview With David Smooke Founder of Hacker Noon by Pirate Beachbum on Hacker Noon:
“Oregon trail in the computer lab was among my early computer memories. When the first computer made it into my house I didn’t think it was a big deal. Floppy disks, meh. The breakthrough wasn’t the computer; the breakthrough was the internet. AIM & ICQ were game changers to the middle school social life. The introduction of instant textual interaction. Chatting it up. Away messages. Moving the power of words to the screen. Instant messaging laid the groundwork for “clarifying” the difference between 1:1 communication and 1:public communication.
I remember joining a ‘gifted’ program where we picked stocks after school with fake money. Musta’ been about 13 or 14. That’s actually where I first heard of Netflix, before I knew what it was. Matthew Satzer was dominating the group by putting so much into Netflix. He made so much fake money. Respect.” — David Smooke.