The 90s were like that. Tech was a much smaller community and you could cold email just about anyone with a decent probability of a response because being on the Internet was a highly selective filter in its own right. In its own way, it was a golden age in terms of accessibility to really smart people.

It was a brilliant moment in time. I was able to routinely chat with an astonishing number of excellent and famous minds when I was young and impressionable in a way that would never happen today. I feel very fortunate to have lived that, it had an enormous impact on my life I think. And it was safe for the people I corresponded with to be accessible back then.