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CEO Calls For AOL Paradigm Shift
An anonymous reader writes "The New York Times is reporting that Jonathan Miller, AOL's chief executive, is calling for the effective dismantling of marketing for their dialup service. In a new plan to be presented to the Time Warner board in a couple of weeks, Miller outlines a new direction for AOL which moves towards using advertising as the main source of revenue while offering most everything they have (software, AOL.com email addresses, etc) for free."
Long ago, when I was a teenager, I spent my afternoons in the family dojo, gazing out upon the subtle greens of the bamboo grove in the valley below. "How many pancakes," I wondered, "would it take to fill the bamboo grove?"
On one such afternoon, my mother entered my room unannounced, and discovered me looking at the bamboo grove -- Discovered me pining and daydreaming of pancakes!!
The next few moments were a blur--she swatted me repeatedly wish the wash rag she carried, admonishing me for being lazy and undisciplined. As she swatting violently at me, I did my best to protect myself, to no avail. The wash rag left me humiliated, and ashamed. It served me well to remember that she herself is the daughter of a ninja, and was familliar with the skills of stealth and surprise attack.
Not even my mother, who had bore me and held me to her bosom, knew of my love for the pancake.
As I grew, my love did also -- And while my mother and father never discussed my passion with me, I feel they somehow knew -- They knew that my love for pancakes was as fitted to my soul as my sword is fitted to it's sheath. One cannot exist without the other.
The course of my life, it seemed, was preordianed. Pancakes were my destiny, and my sword my guide.