But it was science-fiction books, magazines and Isaac Asimov's stories that blended hard science with believable human beings that captured his young mind. He received his degree, but took a job teaching science and math in New York, writing on the side. It was Burstein's first published piece and it would go on to win a 1996 nomination for the Hugo Award, given each year by the World Science Fiction Society. Tony, a boy who lives in a city, sneaks into a wired, futuristic private school because funding to build such advanced schools in poor areas falls through. In the school, students wire in from all over.
Textbooks automatically adjust to students' reading level.
But in order to join in, Tony must steal virtual reality glasses from another student. Burstein got the idea for the story after he heard a comment that by 2001, everyone would have electronic mail. One idea, for instance, came out of a lunch appointment Burstein had with Schmidt. Schmidt led his guest down a New York City street to an Argentine restaurant he liked, but because the editor's memory of the restaurant's location was one block off, the two men spent several minutes walking up and down the street in vain. Burstein later wrote a story about a similarly disappearing cafe.