In 2008, while visiting Silicon Valley, I met with Ken Thompson ("Thompson worked at Bell Labs for most of his career where he designed and implemented the original Unix operating system"). Ken worked at Google at that time. I just dropped him an e-mail, in which …

— Timo Heuer (@theuer) January 13, 2020

I basically said: I'm a 17 year old computer nerd and would love to meet up with you and visit you at Google. He said yes immediately, knowing nothing really about me. So had lunch at the Googleplex. I was amazed. And shy (being 17).

— Timo Heuer (@theuer) January 13, 2020

We sat there and had sandwiches. Talked. Somebody came to our table, Ken introduced us: "Oh, this is Mike." He sat down and they started chatting about white water rafting. Turns out, this Mike was Michael Burrows, co-founder of Altavista.

— Timo Heuer (@theuer) January 13, 2020

And I, naturally, was part of their discussion. This very early experience of Silicon Valley has since then always shaped my view of the "computer scene". Open. Understatement. Curious. And I, 17 years old, just accepted. I often think about this experience.

— Timo Heuer (@theuer) January 13, 2020