-
"Computers in the future may
weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
- Popular Mechanics,
forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949
-
I think there is a world market
for maybe five computers."
- Thomas Watson,
chairman of IBM, 1943
-
"I have traveled the length
and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can
assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year."
- The editor
in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957
-
"But what ... is it good for?"
- Engineer
at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on
the microchip.
-
There is no reason anyone would
want a computer in their home."
- Ken Olson,
president, chairman & founder of Digital Equipment Co, 1977
-
"This 'telephone' has too many
shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The
device is inherently of no value to us."
- Western Union internal
memo, 1876.
-
"The telephone will be used
to inform people that a telegram has been sent."
- Alexander
Graham Bell.
-
"The wireless music box has
no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody
in particular?"
- David Sarnoff's
associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the
1920s.
-
"The concept is interesting
and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must
be feasible."
- A Yale University
management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable
overnight delivery service. Smith went on to found Federal
Express Corp.
-
"Who the hell wants to hear
actors talk?"
- H.M. Warner,
Warner Brothers, 1927.
-
"I'm just glad it'll be Clark
Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper."
- Gary Cooper
on his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone With The Wind."
-
"A cookie store is a bad idea.
Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies,
not soft and chewy cookies like you make."
- Response
to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields' Cookies.
-
"We don't like their sound,
and guitar music is on the way out."
- Decca Recording
Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.
-
"Can't dance. Can't act.
Can sing a little."
- Notes from
Fred Astaire's screen test.
-
"Heavier-than-air flying machines
are impossible."
- Lord Kelvin,
president, Royal Society, 1895.
-
"If I had thought about it,
I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples
that said you can't do this."
- Spencer Silver
on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3M "Post-It" Pads
-
"So we went to Atari and said,
'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts,
and what do you think about funding us? Or we'll give it to you.
We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come to work for you.'
And they said, 'No.' So then we
went to Hewlett-Packard,
and they said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college
yet.'"
- Apple Computer
Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and HP interested in his
and Steve Wozniak's personal computer.
-
"Professor Goddard does not
know the relation between action and reaction and the need to have something
better than a vacuum against which to react. He seems to lack the
basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools."
- 1921 New
York Times editorial about Robert Goddard's revolutionary rocket work.
-
"You want to have consistent
and uniform muscle development across all of your muscles? It can't
be done. It's just a fact of life. You just have to accept
inconsistent muscle development as an unalterable condition of weight training."
- Response
to Arthur Jones, who solved the "unsolvable" problem by inventing Nautilus.
-
"Drill for oil? You mean
drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy."
- Drillers
who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.
-
"The bomb will never go off.
I speak as an expert in explosives."
- Admiral William
Leahy, US Atomic Bomb Project.
-
"This fellow Charles Lindbergh
will never make it. He's doomed."
- Harry Guggenheim,
millionaire aviation enthusiast.
-
"Stocks have reached what looks
like a permanently high plateau."
- Irving Fisher,
Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.
-
"Airplanes are interesting toys
but of no military value."
- Marechal Ferdinand
Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.
-
"Man will never reach the moon
regardless of all future scientific advances."
- Dr. Lee De
Forest, inventor of the vacuum tube and father of television.
-
"Everything that can be invented
has been invented."
- Charles H.
Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.
-
"Louis Pasteur's theory of germs
is ridiculous fiction".
- Pierre Pachet,
Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872
-
"The abdomen, the chest, and
the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane
surgeon".
- Sir John
Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen
Victoria 1873.
-
"If excessive smoking actually
plays a role in the production of lung cancer, it seems to be a minor one."
- Dr. W.C.
Heuper of the National Cancer Institute, as quoted in the New York Times
on April 14, 1954.
-
"For the majority of People,
smoking has a beneficial effect."
- Dr. Ian G.
Macdonald, Los Angeles surgeon, quoted in "Newsweek", Nov. 8th 1963.
-
"640K ought to be enough for
anybody."
- Bill Gates,
1981
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