Putting things on the internet since 2002.
the original sp02ger.com splash, circa 2004
In 1999, I was 14, sitting in a bank in Kona, Hawaii, trying to talk my parents into co-signing a $1,500 loan.
Not for a car. Not for clothes. For a computer.
The iMac DV had just come out. Translucent green. It looked like it came from the future. I couldn't tell you exactly what I'd do with it. I just knew I needed it.
I told my parents I'd cover the payments. Every Wednesday, my brothers, a few friends, and I would show up at the West Hawaii Today office and stuff advertising inserts into the papers. We were embarrassingly fast. The math worked.
They signed.
By 2002, I'd taught myself enough HTML, web design, and digital editing to put a surf site online. I called it sp02ger.com, because I was 14 and that's what 14-year-olds do.
This was before YouTube. Before social media. Before "content." From a website I built in my bedroom, sp02ger pulled in millions of visits over four years from people around the world who wanted to see Hawaii waves.
The iMac DV was a brand-new tool. I picked it up early, figured out how to use it well, and made something real with it.
But the tool was never the point.
You're standing in front of your own version of that loan counter right now. AI, automation, modern web, whatever's just landed in your hands. The tools are different. The choice isn't. Pick something up early. Learn to use it well. Make something that actually matters.
That last part is where it gets hard. A new tool in the wrong hands just adds to the noise. Which is why before we get into any of this, there's a question Steve Jobs asked in 1983.