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I feel confused at this comment, even suspicious. But did you know that ^C does not actually exit vim?

:q!

Pressing ^C in normal mode tells you how to exit vim.

It does _now_.

One of the most important UX advances of recent years, IMO. Introduced in Vim 6.3, released in June 2004.

>recent years

>2004

:)

That's way after I had to reset a terminal and log back in the first time that I tried to use vi.

First Time I saw that, I was like 'but typing doesn't work'. Then, I fumbled my way into insert mode and managed to type :q . It didn't do anything.

VIM is hard for first time users.

It's possible he was actually trying to exit a non-vim vi that doesn't pop up a useful message explaining how to quit when you hit ^C.

Vim might do that but other implementations of vi don't. Instead, they flash the screen, ring the bell or print something to the effect of "interrupted".

He mentioned that this occurred very early in his career, perhaps as a child.

He named Red Hat 5, which had a lot fewer niceties than are default today.