Great Ideas from the Past
Gina, thanks for sending me these Great Ideas!
I love the last one! LOL… :-D
1. “Computers, in the future, may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.”
– Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949.
2. “I think there is a world market for, maybe, five computers.”
– Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
3. “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.
4. “But what is it good for?”
– Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.
5. “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.”
– Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp.,1977.
6. “This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is, inherently, of no value.”
– Western Union internal memo, 1876.
7. “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
8. “The concept is interesting and well-formed.
But, in order to earn better than a ‘C,’ the idea must be feasible.”
– A Yale Univ. management professor in response to Fred Smith’s paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service.( Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)
9. “Who wants to hear actors talk?”
– H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927
10. “I’m just glad it will be Clark Gable who is falling on his face and not Gary Cooper.”
– Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in “Gone With The Wind”.
11. “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.
12. “We don’t like their sound and guitar music is on the way out.”
– Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962
13. “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.
14. “Stocks have reached what looks like a, permanently, high plateau.”
– Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929
15.” Airplanes are interesting toys, but of no military value.”
– Marecha Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.
16. “Louis Pasteur’s theory of germs is ridiculous fiction.”
– Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872
17. “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, Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria, 1873.
and finally…….
18. “64K ought to be enough memory for anybody.”
– Bill Gates, 1981
