- "Who in their right mind would ever need more than 640k of ram!?"
-- Bill Gates, 1981 - "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 and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 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 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. - "Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible."
--Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895. - "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. - "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."
--Marecha Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre. - "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. |
