Very fortunate. I feel very fortunate to have started into software development when I did (around 1996/97), because it was then that two things were

Giving to Freely Given Software - The Why

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2022-01-13 23:00:06

Very fortunate. I feel very fortunate to have started into software development when I did (around 1996/97), because it was then that two things were happening:

At that point in my life (and career), I didn't have the experience or perspective necessary to understand or appreciate the massive importance of both of those developments - not just for my future self, but for the world at-large. Twenty-plus years and a career later, I can now see clearly what was fuzzy to me then.

My career as a software developer, all of the success I had doing it, all of the riches I gained in execution of it, was/were thanks in large part to the quirk of timing that got me started alongside the web and open-source. With the web came easily-accessed information and knowledge - from which I learned. With open-source came a trove of codebases and projects - with which I built.

The web (getting access to it) never came freely. I first hopped-on in college (definitely not free). Post-college, I paid Comcast and Verizon at alternating points over the years for internet access.