Not So Great Ideas From The Past

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Not So Great Ideas From The Past

 

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, chairperson of IBM, 1943.

 

3. 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 will not last out the year.

The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957.

 

4. But what is the microchip 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, chairperson and founder of Digital Equipment Corp. 1977.One of the all-time classic tech prediction flubs. At that time, the first microprocessors had only recently come to market, personal computers of the era sported awkward names like ” Microsoft and Apple were startups.

 

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. There is just not that many videos I want to watch.

Steve Chen in 2005, CTO and co-founder of YouTube expressing concerns about his company’s long-term viability.

 

10. I am 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 do not like their sound and guitar music is on the way out.

Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962

 

13. The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty, a fad. 

President of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Henry Ford’s lawyer, Horace Rackham, not to invest in the Ford Motor Company.

 

14. Stocks have reached what looks like a, permanently, high plateau.

Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929. The stock market crash of 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression cost Fisher much of his personal wealth and academic reputation

 

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.

 

Finally…

 

18. 64K ought to be enough memory for anybody.

Bill Gates, 1981