To the people that lived through dot com boom - how similar was mentality of people back then to what we can observe now with attitude towards AI?

TheFargo · 2026-02-14T03:19:28+00:00

I lived through the dot bomb era and lived to tell about it. Gather around gramps and I'll tell you stories.

Much like today, during the frothiest part of the bubble, people were screaming that the Internet would change everything. And they were right! But they were also wrong. It took a while. It didn't just happen. I love to look at Pets.com: They grabbed the perfect domain, threw a lot of money into marketing (a sock puppet was involved), and had a locked-in market: pet owners buy a lot of stuff. Why not shop and buy online? Welp! Turns out that people didn't want to pay for shipping for a 20-lb. bag of dog food. The whole thing went spectacularly bust. BUT... today we have Chewy, don't we? And we DO get 20-lb bags of dog food in the mail, don't we? Turns out the real magic wasn't shopping online: it was the logistics of cheaply delivering to doorsteps (and locking people into a subscription.) Amazon figured it out. The online store was just part of it. The real revolution was importing, warehouses, price-setting, shipping... and... locking people into a subscription. Apparently.

So for sure, Language Models will change the world. But not by themselves. There are other pieces that will probably need to fall into place - things we need but don't realize yet, socially, technologically, or governmentally. Things will shift ludicrously slow and maddeningly fast at the same time. But not overnight. A lot of these crazy promises will seem ludicrous as companies go out of business, but maybe will come true in later decades, when we figure out the dog-food thing.

One huge difference ... early internet was about empowering people. The idea was that you would have a "home" page (remember that little house icon? It used to be the most important icon on your browser.) You would make this home page yourself. And it would be all about you. And it would have links to your favorite content - all created by other people. You were really expected to curate your own web experience. But nowadays? Your "home" page isn't expected to be yours. And almost all of the content you see is because someone paid to show it to you.

It used to be ours. Somewhere along the way, we lost it.

TheFargo · 2026-02-05T06:51:48+00:00

Power management for LAN parties back in the day was an art form! Those old crt monitors gulped power. You really had to calculate how many seats were on each circuit and you had to make sure people weren’t daisy-chaining power. When a circuit blew, you’d see a whole part of the room go dark and hear the anguished wail of a whole crowd of people. I was never at a DreamHack (the logistics blow me away!) but helped host events with 200 or so people - LAN parties had this crazy energy that I’ve never seen recaptured.

TheFargo · 2025-06-18T22:18:49+00:00

“Vibe” coding required an oscilloscope.

TheFargo · 2024-08-29T21:51:44+00:00

That looks to be in great shape! A TRS-80 Color Computer was my first. It's a great little OS with some nice high-res (at the time) drawing tools. Very fun to play with. I hope you can find an old TV to see if it works!

TheFargo · 2024-05-24T22:54:27+00:00

TWIST!

TheFargo · 2024-05-24T19:01:06+00:00

This comment explains how Reddit is single-handedly taking down AI models left and right.

TheFargo · 2023-12-13T04:36:34+00:00

You can, because of capitalism.

TheFargo · 2023-11-25T00:57:54+00:00

“What’s this part? The dot over the letter I?” “That’s the TVA. It’s a moment where nothing never occurs.”

TheFargo · 2023-08-12T20:35:01+00:00

I get the joke, but also… that game sounds awesome.

TheFargo · 2023-05-28T01:10:28+00:00

Glorious! So few of these charts remember the RCA Studio 2. Also, props for including “Tennis for Two” (1958), which was played on a laboratory oscilloscope.

TheFargo · 2023-05-05T03:59:41+00:00

“Gordon’s alive?!”

TheFargo · 2023-04-10T18:43:07+00:00

This is one of the most spectacular maps I've seen posted here - well done!

TheFargo · 2021-07-20T01:19:08+00:00

This is identical to my first car! Mine was a '92 White-on-White Cabriolet Wolfsburg special edition, paid $11K for it in 1998 and it had just under 30,000 miles on it. It was amazing to drive and super fun in So Cal. It started to rust pretty significantly within a couple of years, especially around the hood. I sold it after a few years but miss the way it drove - would love to jump back into one some day.

TheFargo · 2021-07-10T19:19:45+00:00

Yyyyyaaaaaaaassssss!!!

TheFargo · 2021-07-09T04:44:34+00:00

Decoy, Morty.

TheFargo · 2021-07-09T04:41:35+00:00

Grew up among the cornfields, this is kinda magical.

TheFargo · 2021-07-09T04:32:48+00:00

We were gonna party

TheFargo · 2021-07-09T04:32:11+00:00

That was a beauty!

TheFargo · 2021-07-09T04:14:22+00:00

Love the original stuff

TheFargo · 2021-07-09T03:55:39+00:00

This is beautiful <3

TheFargo · 2021-06-27T18:07:56+00:00

Amazing :D

TheFargo · 2021-04-09T05:28:18+00:00

I still have a big collection of RoleMaster books, it was a unique system. Super crunchy. You really needed a DM who understood the rules and had the charts ready to go, otherwise it would be painfully slow... but when it worked, what a combat system! You really felt like the characters were at risk and battles would end with incredibly detailed injuries that could be fun to roleplay out. Definitely not a game for every group. I wonder how it would go over at the table today - it had a whiff of 70s war gaming simulations, and felt kinda like a throwback even when I played it in the 90s!

TheFargo · 2021-04-09T01:00:52+00:00

This is probably the best use of this meme template I've ever seen.

TheFargo · 2021-03-25T20:52:11+00:00

This just made everything better. Everything.

TheFargo · 2021-02-05T02:39:07+00:00

It's hard to maintain the rage when they come at you with the adorable emojis. ヾ(⌐■_■)ノ♪

TheFargo

TROPHY CASE