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I started out as a 13-year-old entrepreneur selling stuff on eBay (which was pretty new at the time). There was a loophole when they first opened where you coul

I started out as a 13-year-old entrepreneur selling stuff on eBay (which was pretty new at the time). There was a loophole when they first opened where you could sign up under someone else's name and switch all of the records over to your name; that way you didn't have to be 18 to register. I first grew to love the Internet as the only real meritocracy I experienced in life. No one knew I was 13. When I talked to people in person I would get a pat on the head and a "you'll do great some day," but the little eBay company I had started was taken very seriously. It's still around today, and it makes just over $2 million/year in net profit (not on eBay any more). While the Internet is no longer as anonymous, and I am no longer with the aforementioned company, I believe product still speaks for itself. While it's true that investors may be looking for a dropout Stanford grad student, if you create something people love you can grow a company regardless of what anyone thinks about you as a person. Hell, I raised half a million dollars as an 18-year-old kid, not because I looked or acted like the quintessential entrepreneur, but because I could show numbers. If you can show someone, "Here's a black box where you put in $1 and $10 comes out," finding money isn't hard. Even if you're 18. You don't know who I am from this comment (unless you stalk my bio and find me on Twitter). If you like it you'll upvote it. That's exactly (one of the many reasons) why I love the Internet.

chimeracoder 14y ago
> While the Internet is no longer as anonymous > You don't know who I am from this comment (unless you stalk my bio and find me on Twitter). If you like it you'll upvote it. That's exactly (one of the many reasons) why I love the Internet. That's the one sad thing, though: as you yourself point out, the Internet is moving in a direction where this concept of an anonymous meritocracy is already becoming more and more difficult - and, eventually, likely impossible.
- cheapsteak 14y ago
  The internet was a much smaller place. Instead of seeing the change in the way most of the web is used as invading this anonymous meritocracy, perhaps it would be more reasonable to say that the meritocracy is now surrounded by settlers who are using the land in a different way.
  - yuhong 14y ago
    In the long term, anonymity is not the real solution to the problem anyway.
    - corporalagumbo 14y ago
      What is the problem?
      - TrevorJ 14y ago
        Human nature probably.
- vidarh 14y ago
  It might become more difficult, but mostly because most of us don't care enough about being hard to track down. Piecing together most of my "online identity" for example is easy, because I don't care. My id here is my first name and last initial. My name is all over my blog which I've acknowledged ownership of in many contexts, even where I use user names that does not match my name in any way, for example. But there are the odd pieces you likely won't find, because I don't want you to find them. People just need to, and will, learn to curate their identity more. Incidentally, things like Google's attempt at a real name policy for G+ in some ways makes anonymity easier: It makes people trust names that have not been verified - just eyeballed for "looks like a real human name". Everyone knows that "chimeracoder" is not likely to be your real name. But if you posted as pjohnson (just to pick something at random), people would be likely to assume it is your actual name and be none the wiser.
  - chimeracoder 14y ago
    > It might become more difficult, but mostly because most of us don't care enough about being hard to track down I would argue that's already not possible anymore, with today's Internet. Being completely anonymous, including to Google/Facebook/your ISP is much more difficult than you think. You essentially have to write off large parts of the web as unviewable, which to me only confirms that anonymity on the Internet is all but a thing of the past.
- robmcm 14y ago
  I agree it's becoming a lot easier to find out who people are on the internet, but its still very easy to create a new pseudonym and no one will know who you are :)

chimeracoder 14y ago

> While the Internet is no longer as anonymous > You don't know who I am from this comment (unless you stalk my bio and find me on Twitter). If you like it you'll upvote it. That's exactly (one of the many reasons) why I love the Internet. That's the one sad thing, though: as you yourself point out, the Internet is moving in a direction where this concept of an anonymous meritocracy is already becoming more and more difficult - and, eventually, likely impossible.

cheapsteak 14y ago
The internet was a much smaller place. Instead of seeing the change in the way most of the web is used as invading this anonymous meritocracy, perhaps it would be more reasonable to say that the meritocracy is now surrounded by settlers who are using the land in a different way.
- yuhong 14y ago
  In the long term, anonymity is not the real solution to the problem anyway.
  - corporalagumbo 14y ago
    What is the problem?
    - TrevorJ 14y ago
      Human nature probably.
vidarh 14y ago
It might become more difficult, but mostly because most of us don't care enough about being hard to track down. Piecing together most of my "online identity" for example is easy, because I don't care. My id here is my first name and last initial. My name is all over my blog which I've acknowledged ownership of in many contexts, even where I use user names that does not match my name in any way, for example. But there are the odd pieces you likely won't find, because I don't want you to find them. People just need to, and will, learn to curate their identity more. Incidentally, things like Google's attempt at a real name policy for G+ in some ways makes anonymity easier: It makes people trust names that have not been verified - just eyeballed for "looks like a real human name". Everyone knows that "chimeracoder" is not likely to be your real name. But if you posted as pjohnson (just to pick something at random), people would be likely to assume it is your actual name and be none the wiser.
- chimeracoder 14y ago
  > It might become more difficult, but mostly because most of us don't care enough about being hard to track down I would argue that's already not possible anymore, with today's Internet. Being completely anonymous, including to Google/Facebook/your ISP is much more difficult than you think. You essentially have to write off large parts of the web as unviewable, which to me only confirms that anonymity on the Internet is all but a thing of the past.
robmcm 14y ago
I agree it's becoming a lot easier to find out who people are on the internet, but its still very easy to create a new pseudonym and no one will know who you are :)