Fooled by Narrative
John grew up solidly middle class, in a solidly middle-class town in Middle America, to solidly middle-class parents, where he went to a solidly middle-class school.
He had a nice upbringing; his father worked in IT for the biggest computer software company in the state, and his mother was an elementary school teacher. John grew up with a deep love for learning and computers, and especially learning about computers. You can say it was in his blood.
John didn’t have many friends in school, but that was fine by him — he had his books and his computers, and especially his books about computers. Apart from books about computers, John loved sci-fi and was often lost in the utopian worlds of some far off galaxy.
Despite his solidly middle-class upbringing, John demonstrated a proclivity for computer science, coding his first software program when he was just 12 years old. His prodigal abilities allowed him to develop a hankering for entrepreneurship, as well, and at age 16 he created his first Internet business.
After graduating high school a year early, it was off to Stanford, where John, for the first time in his young life, finally felt belonging. It was there in his college dorm that he met Eric, who quickly became his best friend and co-founder.
