I read this: https://m.slashdot.org/story/138276

I read this a moment later: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

And about 10 minutes later I downloaded bitcoin. But it took a day or two before I learned I had to find a menu option to turn on mining.

I went from 0 to running bitcoin in a breath because I _wanted_ bitcoin to succeed, even if I never got any. As a 12-13 year old kid, i had a shitty living arrangement and I was saving money to get out someday. I got beat up and had all my money stolen. Less than $500, but a lot to me back then. Fast forward to 2010, and I knew that if I could help Bitcoin succeed, then perhaps someday the system could grow big enough for anyone to store hundreds or even thousands of dollars of value in. I’m really rather glad I had what at the time seems like a crushing blow…I worked my ass off, got a college scholarship, got degrees in astrophysics and math while working 3 jobs in college, started a PhD in biomedical engineering, and then pivoted to medicine…it wasn’t until I was a first year resident at a well known multi specialty private group practice with a world wide reputation located in southeast Minnesota that I found Bitcoin. While I was poor still then, I felt that I had “made” it. And running this bitcoin thing on my laptop was my way of giving back. It just happened to be like me and roughly 64-256 other people mining at that time, judging by my share of blocks at the beginning.