Why I Wrote PGP (1999)
There’s something… different about how people (techie people are most of my sample) would write before the 00’s. I’m not sure if it has to do with the medium, or the constraints of the time, but reading it always fills me with something I can best describe as peace/nostalgia. The belief that technology honestly can change the world for the better and that the most influential people driving it have good motives instead of profit motives. And they were real visionaries most of the time. By contrast, anything seemingly after the dot com boom (I can’t draw a clear line, this is just throwing a dart) seems, I don’t know how to describe it. Too self-aware, too clever? It’s similar to the contrast between HN and other forums/social media out there. I’m not sure, but whenever an older article or something shows up, I usually enjoy it. Perhaps it’s that only the best have survived till now.