I graduated from high school in 1996 and was way into web development from the very first days.  I didn&#x27;t end up coming out for the dotcom days, but I definitely have fond memories of those times.  There was a sense of camaraderie of early PC and internet users where the motivations seemed to me to be slightly more noble.  Not that the VCs or tech giants of the time weren&#x27;t greedy—of course they were—but there wasn&#x27;t the same kind of Hollywood feel where all the ambitious people were flooding out here gold-rush style.<p>If you went on Usenet &#x2F; IRC back in the 80s&#x2F;90s, there was this palpable sense that the internet would change the world.  You could almost draw a direct line back to the counter-culture movement of the 60s, and those ideas which led to a lot of early software and networking work which we still benefit from today.  The vast majority of people involved with computers back then were just drawn to them by their nature.<p>The problem today is that other sectors of the economy are really suffering, and software has become so easy that the bar to get started is so low, add the veneer of social media glorifying the whole thing and it lends itself to a circus atmosphere.  Many people today choose tech as an arbitrary career path.  I don&#x27;t begrudge anyone their chosen path, but it has certainly led to a different vibe than what it used to be.<p>At the end of the day though, I have to admit to myself that it is probably simple nostalgia.  Every generation thinks the old days were better as they age.