Back in 1995, when I just started writing for Wired while I wasn’t actively writing software, AOL tried to hire me, and I almost went. I made several trips to Virginia, one was notable — it was an onsite meeting for all of AOL’s CTOs, which even at that early date was an impressive gathering. They had just bought a backbone company (I forget the name) — one of the big ones, and had bought a company that made a Web browser, and a few others, and then there were the core people who managed the AOL servers and their incredible network of dialups.

The reason I mention all this is that I had the opposite impression. I learned a lot from all those people. In many ways each of them understood the Internet very well. Steve Case and the people he hired, in turn, hired well. That AOL works at all is testimony to that. What they do is hard. Really hard.

AOL was the finger in the dyke of the Internet.

I have a story about this too.

At a party last week I met the former CEO of The Well, Maria Alioto. Very smart and high energy. We talked about her experience. A total parallel to AOL. Good start, probably was necessary for the Web to get going. The core of the West Coast Web. The meeting place for the future staff of Wired. All good things. But in the mid-90s when she came on, it had no future. As AOL had no future when Time-Warner was snookered into taking their stock.

Moral of the story: Never underestimate Steve Case.

Second moral: He’s like Columbo, he makes it easy for you to underestimate him.