"Hey Mom! I got an A in Web 3.0 class!"

My good friend Ben Casnocha, who was recently recognized as one of Business Week's Best Entrepreneurs Under 25, recently asked me to review a pre-release copy of his forthcoming book. (I was flattered and am enjoying the read.)

Everyone knows Ben as an incredibly thoughtful and wise young man who has somehow balanced his role as CEO of a successful web company with the rigors of high school life and chronicled on his blog many of his adventures along the way.

Ben is 18 now and, though we all note his youth with admiration when considering how bright and successful he is, it never occurred to me how young Ben really is, until I read this sentence from his manuscript:

"I still remember what started as a routine day in the year 2000 when my 6th grade technology teachers . . . wrote on the board our class concept for a new web site."

Haha. Sixth grade in 2000? That same year I was putting the capstone on a six-figure pile of law school debt. He was just in elementary school and I was studying for the bar exam. It is just as interesting for me to consider that he had "technology teachers" covering web topics. I always thought I was lucky that there was one computer in my entire primary school building (an Apple II+) and I got a regular chance to use it. I always felt like I had a headstart on all the geezers who hadn't seen one before.

I read this sentence out loud to a group of engineers from my team at lunch the other day and they cracked up like I did. It touched off such a wave of nostalgia for the first machines we all used and when we first discovered the Internet. We all felt so old and yet so lucky.

So, cheers to Ben and his generation and double cheers to the kids in 6th grade today who will show us all up soon enough.

Comments

[Ben Casnocha]

Thanks for starting to read it! Can't wait to hear your thoughts !

[JOnathan Keller]

The shortest generation gap -ever- was provided through computers. I remember Chris and I talking in 1994---or somewhere near that year. I had just received AOL 2.0 and Chris was going to talk me through 'Connecting to the World Wide Web' I think it went a little something like this:

Chris: So are you connected Hawk---?

Me: Yeah I'm trying---but the dial-in number is not detecting a dial tone.

Chris: Are you calling from the same line as your modem connection?

Me: Yes---is that a problem?

Chris: Hey Hawk, go grab the mobile cellular phone bag from your mom and call me from that...click...

Me: Sorry about that---can you hear me OK? I think this cellular phone is the coolest. I like how the cord goes from this big brick phone into a big black hardware bag.

Chris: You are the coolest Hawk.

Me: Allright---I didn't get connected at 28k but I did get 14k is that OK?

Chris: No worries---let me know when you get to your homepage.

6 minutes later

Chris: Are you there Hawk?

Me: Yeah---It just loaded---this AOL 2.0 is blazing!

Chris: Great, now I want you to find the address bar and type the following----h, t, t, p, colon, backslash, backslash, W, W, W, dot, Yahoo, dot, C, O, M.

Me: What the heck is a backslash?

Chris: The one under the Question Mark.

Me: allright...h....t....t.......p....colon.....

8 minutes later

Chris: Are you there yet?

Me: Yeah---I can see the top of a page and it's filling in a few inches every 30 seconds!

Chris: Great! Now your connected---where are you going to surf?

Me: Surf...?

Chris: You know---where are you going to go from here?

Me: I think I'm going to try to unload my Will Clark rookie cards---oh wait---AOL is asking me to confirm my username and password.

Chris: wait dude---be careful it might be a set-up.

Me: too late---I already did---oh wait my connection was terminated. Wow that was exciting! I got a lot done and I need to eat.

Chris:----groan-----

Me: I'll call you after dinner

90 minutes later--calling Chris

Me: huh---AOL has terminated my account for inappropriate activity. Yahoo really sucks! Got any other addresses Chris?

Chris: Not off the top of my head. Hey, I don't want those Will Clark cards, but shoot me a price for the McGwire, Clemens and Bonds cards...I think those guys are going to stick.

[Chris Sacca]

Haha. Perfect. You know, Jonathan was my baseball card mentor so he will remember how I was all about the Canseco rookies, but couldn't afford to buy them outright. So, I would buy wax packs thinking I would get lucky. All I ever ended up with though was the Kal Daniels. So, in a wise move, Jon pushed me into buying McGwire Olympic rookie cards. Sweet.

[abercrombie & fitch london]

I read this sentence out loud to a group of engineers from my team at lunch the other day and they cracked up like I did. It touched off such a wave of nostalgia for the first machines we all used and when we first discovered the Internet. We all felt so old and yet so lucky.

[hollister clothing]

Caution to readers: do not confuse the tactics of a rookie like Saddam with an experienced gesticulator like1