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Author Topic: Examples of Bad Judgement  (Read 5912 times)

Offline reinbeau

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Examples of Bad Judgement
« on: May 01, 2007, 07:12:36 pm »
They were wrong

**"Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances." -- Dr. Lee DeForest, Father of Radio & Grandfather of Television

**"The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives." - -Admiral William Leahy, US Atomic Bomb Project

**"There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom." --Robert Millikan, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1923

**"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.

**"640K ought to be enough for anybody." -- Bill Gates, 1981

**" 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.)

**"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.

**"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible," -- Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895

**"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.

**"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy," -- Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.

**"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, France ..

**"Everything that can be invented has been invented," -- Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, US Office of Patents, 1899.

**"The super computer is technologically impossible. It would take all of the water that flows over Niagara Falls to cool the heat generated by the number of vacuum tubes required." -- Professor of Electrical Engineering, New York University

**"I don't know what use any one could find for a machine that would make copies of documents. It certainly couldn't be a feasible business by itself." -- the head of IBM, refusing to back the idea, forcing the inventor to found Xerox.

**"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.

And last but not least...



**"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." -- Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977