When I was in college, AOL was stilling mailing 3.5 inch floppy
disks. They hadn't gotten to CDs yet because many computers
still didn't have a CD-ROM. Nice thing about 3.5 inch floppies -
I could flip a physical switch and they became writeable. So
when AOL did their mailing I went dumpster diving; well, I
dug throught the trashcan next to the student mailboxes and
fished out all the AOL disks I could find. Great way to save money,
right?
Steve Case, AOL's CEO from way back then, has a new book out
about The Third Wave of internet entrepreneurship. I
really enjoy listening to Case talk, so I have to say I was a
little disappointed with his voice in book form. The book was
meandering and didn't really possess the cohesive vision one
expects from a good business book. I appreciated the the shout
outs Case gave to the tech community in Nashville, but his
bashing of Peter Thiel seemed more based on jealousy than
substance. Thiel has found founded multiple billion dollar
businesses (Paypal, Palantir, etc.)
as well as investing in them early (c.f. Facebook)
but Case is a one hit wonder with AOL. Case attacks libertarianism
by arguing that you can get things done in Washington. Yes, you
can lobby a bill through congress and get your high school
classmate cum president to sign it if you're Steve Fucking Case.
That option isn't really available to most of us though.
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