[buffington]

Between my freshman and sophomore years in high school I: a) convinced the reluctant phone company to install a dedicated phone line in my bedroom (apparently a very uncommon setup) of my parent's house. b) hooked up a 9600 baud modem I'd found in a dumpster to it and my 386-33mhz computer c) ran a BBS for the sole purpose of having people upload pirated software.

That said, when I do recall that period of time I do feel a bit guilty about the piracy angle. But I'm also reminded of how the original premise (having people give me software) was eclipsed by all of the other things the BBS provided. Within about a month of getting it up and running I'd joined a network of other BBSes that'd automatically call up other BBSes to distribute "packets" (I don't recall the terms used) that'd contain emails, forum posts, and more, of all the other BBSes in the network. It was like having a (very slow) internet connection in my bedroom in 1991, which was not a thing a typical high school skater kid with, at best, a 2.0 GPA, would have, let alone even know existed at the time.

Suggesting that what I learned from that experience was the foundation of my career is a massive understatement. It got me my first tech job, gave me confidence in starting a dot-com (which survived the dot-com-bubble-burst), and built relationships that have lasted over 30 years.