"Because I do think - not just in building AOL - but just the world in which we live is a very confusing, rapidly changing world where technology has accelerated"
About this Quote
Case is trying to make uncertainty sound like a feature, not a bug. The line starts with a small confession - "I do think" - then immediately widens the frame from "building AOL" to "the world in which we live". That pivot is strategic: it recasts AOL's rise (and by implication its missteps) as part of an era-level upheaval no one could fully control. When a tech executive universalizes the story, he isn't just reminiscing; he's laundering corporate history through the language of social destiny.
The diction is doing quiet work. "Confusing" is a soft word that nonetheless absolves: if the environment is bewildering, imperfect decisions become understandable, even inevitable. "Rapidly changing" and "technology has accelerated" lean on a late-90s/early-2000s gospel of velocity, the idea that speed itself is proof of progress. In that worldview, disruption is natural weather, not a choice made by companies with incentives, lobbyists, and market power.
Context matters. Case, the emblem of dial-up America's gateway, speaks from the hinge point where the internet went from novelty to infrastructure. AOL sold clarity to ordinary users - easy access, curated portals - while helping set the stage for the messy, unmoderated, always-on internet that followed. His sentence contains that contradiction: the builder of a simplifying product describing a world made more complex by the very systems he helped scale.
The subtext is reputational: if technology "accelerated", then leaders like Case weren't merely chasing growth; they were riding an historical wave. It's a neat rhetorical move - one that invites admiration for foresight while quietly asking for forgiveness for the chaos.
The diction is doing quiet work. "Confusing" is a soft word that nonetheless absolves: if the environment is bewildering, imperfect decisions become understandable, even inevitable. "Rapidly changing" and "technology has accelerated" lean on a late-90s/early-2000s gospel of velocity, the idea that speed itself is proof of progress. In that worldview, disruption is natural weather, not a choice made by companies with incentives, lobbyists, and market power.
Context matters. Case, the emblem of dial-up America's gateway, speaks from the hinge point where the internet went from novelty to infrastructure. AOL sold clarity to ordinary users - easy access, curated portals - while helping set the stage for the messy, unmoderated, always-on internet that followed. His sentence contains that contradiction: the builder of a simplifying product describing a world made more complex by the very systems he helped scale.
The subtext is reputational: if technology "accelerated", then leaders like Case weren't merely chasing growth; they were riding an historical wave. It's a neat rhetorical move - one that invites admiration for foresight while quietly asking for forgiveness for the chaos.
Quote Details
| Topic | Technology |
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