Yeah I'm not suffering under the illusion I could have been him. In 1996 I was a drop-out philosophy student who got web-programming jobs through a friend who saw my potential and I moved out to Toronto to try to make a go of it, got caught up in rave culture, etc instead of focusing well on my career. My programming interest was in the MUDs/MOOs and the potential for that kind of synchronoius multiuser environment; not the web (which I was only into because that's where the $$ was and it kind of sucked then.) Then as now I didn't/don't have the personality type to be an entrepreneur or manager of that kind of stuff.

It's just interesting to look back at those early days and think of how green field it all was, and how there was at least the semblance of opportunity.

But as you point out, it wasn't really a level playing field either.