here's a new (complete?) compilation of these un famous sayings by famous
and un famous people.
"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.
"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 3-M
"Post-It" Notepads.
"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 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 H-P interested in his and Steve Wozniak's
personal computer.
"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.
"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.
"Everything that can be invented has been invented."
--Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.
"640K ought to be enough for anybody." -- Bill Gates, 1981
