If I were 16, I’d be thinking I just made an obscene amount of money ($4,000!) messing with computers for fun, and got to meet people at a famous company.

That’s a free car. Free computer. Uber eats for months.

And my status with my peers as a hacker would be cemented.

I get that bounty amounts are low vs SE salary, but that’s not at all how my 16yo self would see it.