Comment by Jun8

Peter, if you read this comment I suggest that you start writing a book immediately, if one's not in the works: your simple but thoughtful writing style is awesome and makes the deep insights you provide even more delightful. I, for one, plunk down money to read 200 pages of this stuff interested with anecdotes from personal life.

What are the insights I gained from this particular piece:

* self depreciation is funny if done in earnest

* note that the OP had a huge handicap (not knowing to code and ignorant of web technologies) but he was not clueless: he had deep knowledge (at least deeper than most site operators) about the ad business and how to monetize

* building up from the above, he innovated in an area what he knew, i.e. ads. He didn't try to jump into the idea de jour. Too many first time entrepreneurs miss this point.

* he used simple tools and approaches(e.g. Yellow Pages, source view) but used them effectively. Didn't try to go after shiny tools, e.g. get on a bootcamp to learn web frontend development

Overall vibe (don't know if it's a persona or the real thing, judging from the wackiness of his ideas I'm guessing the latter) from his writings is a person who you'd want to grab coffee (or beer) and just hang out with.