It’s early in this pilot fish’s career, and he has just started working as an IT support tech at a private school when one day he gets a call from a teacher.

“She needed my help to get her dialup connection working at home,” says fish. “This was in the 1990s, when computers had modems, and I was trying to troubleshoot over the phone.

“I went through all the troubleshooting steps that I could think of. Of course, the first thing I asked was if the teacher had connected the modem to the phone line. Yes, she said.

“After spending a few minutes checking various settings, something occurred to me. I asked her how she was talking with me if she was trying to dial out using the modem.

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