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Today, there's an expectation that you get to know public people. In the past, it was much more what you did and how you presented yourself.

In the early days, I really felt the pain of not being able to find information easily. I guess that helped me to develop an urge to write things like a search engine.

For me, the teen years were all about searching for a place for myself, wondering why I seemed so different than everyone else, wondering especially why no one could look past the surface and figure out who I really was underneath.

For much of my life there was no place where the things I wanted to investigate were of interest to anyone.

I didn't want to be known. People say, 'I didn't want to toil in obscurity.' I like toiling in obscurity.

I had to focus on some personal areas in my life with the little bit of privacy that I have.

I mean, that was a throwaway thought, because my focus was - my intent and my focus was to never go public.

Obviously, working at Google wasn't a mistake. I used to just walk around. I don't know if I was supposed to, but I'd just open doors and see what people were doing.

It terrified me to have an idea that was solely mine to be no longer a part of my mind, but totally public.

I was able to grow up and do silly things and have a life with only a small amount of public scrutiny.