The Third Wave

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.