When I was 19 I was interning at Google and I got into a mild discussion on a mailing list with Rob Pike. When I went back to school the next semester someone was teaching a class on UTF-8 and I thought the name of the creator sounded familiar.
Thank god I don't have access to those emails anymore so I don't have to endure the cringe.
To make myself feel better, I posit that that kind of youthful arrogance is at the origin of many innovations done by youngsters that didn't know better.
Reminds me of attending a conference and being in a workshop with a member of TC39, the Ecmascript standards committee. I was sitting next to this individual but didn't know who they were. I made the mistake of complaining about modern JS and version splitting. Fortunately, I didn't say anything too harsh but I definitely would have held my tongue if I knew who they were.
Thank god I don't have access to those emails anymore so I don't have to endure the cringe.
To make myself feel better, I posit that that kind of youthful arrogance is at the origin of many innovations done by youngsters that didn't know better.