I was 15 when the dot-com bubble burst, and I had been following all the hype and madness avidly. Where I lived, our cable provider had ZDTV (later TechTV), and

I was 15 when the dot-com bubble burst, and I had been following all the hype and madness avidly. Where I lived, our cable provider had ZDTV (later TechTV), and I watched that network all the time. Something you'd hear endlessly was that this was a "new economy" where the "old rules don't apply," and "Business 2.0" was the new game. I played along with the stock market, keeping a spreadsheet on my computer with all of my fantasy stock buys and sells, updated daily. I got excited for each days new highs, even though I didn't really have anything in the game. Annnnd then the wheels came off. My imaginary stock portfolio left devastated. Even though I was just an observer on the sidelines, I learned some valuable lessons.