Interesting Quotes

 

• What can be more palpably absurd than the prospect held out of locomotives travelling twice as fast as stagecoaches? - The Quarterly Review, England (March 1825) 
• The abolishment of pain in surgery is a chimaera. It is absurd to go on seeking it. . . . Knife and pain are two words in surgery that must forever be associated in the consciousness of the patient. - Dr. Alfred Velpeau (1839) French surgeon 
• Men might as well project a voyage to the Moon as an attempt to employ steam navigation against the stormy North Atlantic Ocean. - Dr. Dionysus Lardner (1838) Professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, University College, London 
• The foolish idea of shooting at the moon is an example of the absurd length to which vicious specialization will carry scientists working in thought-tight compartments. - A.W. Bickerton (1926) Professor of Physics and Chemistry, Canterbury College, New Zealand 
• When the Paris Exhibition closes electric light will close with it and no more be heard of. - Erasmus Wilson (1878) Professor at Oxford University 
• Well informed people know it is impossible to transmit the voice over wires and that were it possible to do so, the thing would be of no practical value. - Editorial in the Boston Post (1865) 
• That the automobile has practically reached the limit of its development is suggested by the fact that during the past year no improvements of a radical nature have been introduced. - Scientific American, Jan. 2, 1909 
• Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. - Lord Kelvin, ca. 1895, British mathematician and physicist 
• Radio has no future. - Lord Kelvin, ca. 1897. 
• While theoretically and technically television may be feasible, commercially and financially I consider it an impossibility, a development of which we need waste little time dreaming. - Lee DeForest, 1926 (American radio pioneer) 
• There is not the slightest indication that [nuclear energy] will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will. - Albert Einstein, 1932. 
• Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 19,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and perhaps only weigh 1.5 tons. - Popular Mechanics, March 1949. 
• There is no need for any individual to have a computer in their home. - Ken Olson, 1977, President, Digital Equipment Corp. 
• I think there is a world market for maybe five computers. - Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 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 lastout 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. 

A few points to ponder..

1. Even Einstein made the list...suggesting that even a brilliant iconoclast can get siloed by their own thinking. Any currently come to mind?
2. Lord Kelvin shows up multiple times…he also predicted that heavier than air flight was an impossibility…ego is a killer.
3. Lee DeForest was a brilliant Radio pioneer who fought the tides and couldn’t see TV…special interest blocking progress…TV/STREAMING, anyone?
4. The ENIAC story is instructive…if your only tool is a hammer, your only solution is a nail…DIGITAL FIRST?
5. I worked on the DEC account, Ken Olson’s company. They were first to market with many innovations including open offices, yet…. he couldn’t see beyond his own products…leadership is embracing all.
6. Prentice Hall…talked with the “Best People”? Who exactly did they talk to? A lesson in the importance of insight and talking to everyone.
7. IBM…another former client…even them, and in the end they gave up their legacy.