OT OT OT
Hi DMF,
RE: "Being on the cutting edge takes a certain type."
A friend emailed me this:
If They Only Knew....
"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
"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." Popular Mechanics magazine,1949
I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." Thomas Watson, IBM chairman, 1943
"I have travelled 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." Prentice Hall business editor, 1957
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." Ken Olson, founder and chairman of Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977
"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular." memo to David Sarnoff in response to his urgings for investment in radio in the 1920's.
"The concept is interesting and well formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C', the idea must be feasible." Yale University professor's comments on Fred Smith's thesis proposing an overnight delivery service.
(Fred Smith went on to found Federal Express)
"Who wants to hear actors talk?" Harry 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 hid decision not to take the leading role in Gone with the Wind.
"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." Decca Recording Company rejecting The Beatles in 1962.
"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 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 founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get his and Steve Wozniak's original personal computer into production.
"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 rocket scientist Robert Goddard.
"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.
"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.
"640K ought to be enough for everybody." Bill Gates, 1981.
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I'll add a few more:
"What is Linux?" Fall, 1997 [Anonymous VC]
"E-Commerce isn't a proven business model." Spring, 1998. [Anonymous VC]
"Why would anyone want to transmit a document from a PC?" ~ 1986. [Anonymous VC]
"Why would anyone want to talk over the Internet?" Fall, 1996. [Anonymous VC]
My favorite quote is from my sweet (and concerned) Mom nearly a decade ago during the recession, "Why not stay in school so you can enter a financially healthier industry like medicine instead of joining, what is this computer company you are joining called? Micro-what? I have never heard of them - I'm concerned." (Microsoft)
One last quote, "I don't believe anything will be done out of the PC. I think people will always want to run their applications on a PC. I don't think that will ever change." [Anonymous Angel, Fall 1998]
Amy J |
