Very Internet Person

"The free tutorials I followed on the internet, the open source software I read, the open source software I used, tech news, resources like w3schools, random tech blogs, all formed the backbone of my education."

a good story about the open internet. even tho things weren't as convenient back then and u couldn't get immediate answers from a chat ai, there was something nice and fun about parsing through other human contributions yourself ^-^

https://jimmyhmiller.github.io/raised

I remember being 11 combing through Lissa Explains it All trying to understand HTML tables.

I remember being 13 on a forum asking how to put Corpse Explosion (a Diablo 2 spell) into a custom map on Warcraft 3 and a kind stranger named Shimrra patiently explaining how to code it line by line and answering all my naive questions.

I remember being 14 on MySpace in an HTML Experts group seeing numerous people pushing the limits of what could be done with profile pages, sharing their learnings, while taking time to help others like myself troubleshoot their own problems.

I was just a lost kid with an internet connection and silly ideas. I found my path with the help of many kind strangers online. Not to mention the countless free resources I relied on and still do to this day.

I long thought there was a selfish reason for my desire to be helpful, a desire to be liked. But upon reflection I think I've engrained my gratitude for these strangers by trying to pay it all forward; if even to just another lost kid.

father, husband, css golfer, ux engineer, silently defining variables as /sdv sdv.wtf