Comment by elric

When I was a 13 year old precocious nerd, I had a friend who was a few years older than me who sort of took me under his wing. I don't know what he ever saw in me, but he took the time to introduce me to FreeBSD and Linux. He helped me on my way to writing my first bits of useful code. Helped me out with networking issues. Introduced me to some great FOSS minds. He quickly became a big shot in the open source community.

I was never good at reciprocating that friendship and kindness. I had a shitty situation at home, I had zero money and very little agency. But I always deeply appreciated all he did for me. I try to pay it forward when I can (and have a soft spot for precocious nerds).

Reading this thread, and writing this reply, is making me realise I need to put in more of an effort. Thank you, @jupiterglimpse, for reminding me of this.