Those were the days indeed. A big part for me is probably because I was a teen at the time with little responsibility, but getting to be a part of the wild west days of the internet was a magical experience.

Magical indeed!

I once mailed $70 cash (multiple months of allowance) to someone to code a MVP of something I wanted to build.

They ripped me off and disappeared.

And… that’s when I decided I needed to learn to code!

Somewhere out there is a developer telling this exact same story. ‘I once agreed to build an MVP for a kid who promised to mail me cash. Never showed up. And THAT’S when I decided to get a real job.’

Except I mailed the cash in advance! It’s okay, it was probably another 14 year old.

My parents were not happy when I told them I sent cash to a stranger. I remember having to do it in secret because they were very not okay with the idea that you can meet strangers online. Hah.

I think they're describing a scenario where the cash was stolen by a postal worker or for some other reason didn't make the full trip.

I once got half a bitcoin on IRC for coding up a website scraper.