The Museum of Bonehead Remarks
I have spent years collecting these remarks to prove to myself that paradigm paralysis is alive and well in organizations. Enjoy them – and learn from them. You can find the complete collection in my book, Organizational Mental Floss; How to Squeeze Your Organization;s Thinking Juices. Go to amazon.com right now and buy this book (paperback or Kindle). You'll love this book - I promise.
"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau".
Economics, Yale University, 1929
"I think there’s a world market for about 5 computers".
Thomas Watson, IBM. 1943
"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home. The personal computer will fall flat on its face in business".
Ken Olson, DEC, 1977
"But what is it good for? "
Engineer at Advanced Computer Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip
"640K ought to be enough for anybody".
Bill Gates, 1981
"Inventions have long since reached their limit and I see no hope for further development".
Julius Sextus Frontinus, a highly respected engineer in Rome, 1st century AD
"Everything that can be invented has been invented".
HP’s statement to Steve Jobs when he tried to get them interested in his and Steve Wozniak’s personal computer
"People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night".
Daryl Zanuck, 20th Century Fox on the idea of a TV
"We don’t like their sound. Besides, guitar music is on the way out".
President of Decca Records on turning down the Beatles in 1962
"All this concern about auto safety. It’s of the same order as the hula hoop - a fad. Six months from now we’ll probably be on another kick".
W.B. Murphy, president, Campbell Soup Company
"You will never amount to much".
Munich schoolteacher to Albert Einstein when he was about 10 years old
"The phonograph is of no commercial value".
Thomas Edison, remarking on his own invention to his assistant, 1880
"The Japanese auto industry is not likely to carve out a big slice of the US market".
Business Week, 1958
"Mr. Ford, I don’t think that what we are being offered here is worth a damn".
Ernest Breech, Ford CEO on the free offer to take over VW after the war
"I’m just glad it will be Clark Gable who’s falling on his face and not Gary Cooper".
Gary Cooper on turning down the leading role in Gone With the Wind
"Sensible and responsible women do not want to vote".
President Grover Cleveland, 1905
"Everyone should be quite satisfied with carbon paper".
Results of a study by AD Little for Xerox on the possible interest in their new copying invention
"Your game is too complicated and takes too long to play. People will get bored with it".
Parker Brothers when turning down Mr. Darrow’s new board game, Monopoly
"Americans require a restful quiet in the moving-picture theater. Talking on the screen destroys the illusion. Devices for projecting the film actor’s speech can be prefaced, but the idea is not practical".
Thomas Edison, inventor of the motion picture in the New York Times, 1926
"Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers of the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and perhaps weigh 1 1/2 tons".
Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, March 1949
I have spent years collecting these remarks to prove to myself that paradigm paralysis is alive and well in organizations. Enjoy them – and learn from them. You can find the complete collection in my book, Organizational Mental Floss; How to Squeeze Your Organization;s Thinking Juices. Go to amazon.com right now and buy this book (paperback or Kindle). You'll love this book - I promise.
"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau".
Economics, Yale University, 1929
"I think there’s a world market for about 5 computers".
Thomas Watson, IBM. 1943
"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home. The personal computer will fall flat on its face in business".
Ken Olson, DEC, 1977
"But what is it good for? "
Engineer at Advanced Computer Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip
"640K ought to be enough for anybody".
Bill Gates, 1981
"Inventions have long since reached their limit and I see no hope for further development".
Julius Sextus Frontinus, a highly respected engineer in Rome, 1st century AD
"Everything that can be invented has been invented".
- Charles Duell, Director of US Patent Office, 1899
HP’s statement to Steve Jobs when he tried to get them interested in his and Steve Wozniak’s personal computer
"People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night".
Daryl Zanuck, 20th Century Fox on the idea of a TV
"We don’t like their sound. Besides, guitar music is on the way out".
President of Decca Records on turning down the Beatles in 1962
"All this concern about auto safety. It’s of the same order as the hula hoop - a fad. Six months from now we’ll probably be on another kick".
W.B. Murphy, president, Campbell Soup Company
"You will never amount to much".
Munich schoolteacher to Albert Einstein when he was about 10 years old
"The phonograph is of no commercial value".
Thomas Edison, remarking on his own invention to his assistant, 1880
"The Japanese auto industry is not likely to carve out a big slice of the US market".
Business Week, 1958
"Mr. Ford, I don’t think that what we are being offered here is worth a damn".
Ernest Breech, Ford CEO on the free offer to take over VW after the war
"I’m just glad it will be Clark Gable who’s falling on his face and not Gary Cooper".
Gary Cooper on turning down the leading role in Gone With the Wind
"Sensible and responsible women do not want to vote".
President Grover Cleveland, 1905
"Everyone should be quite satisfied with carbon paper".
Results of a study by AD Little for Xerox on the possible interest in their new copying invention
"Your game is too complicated and takes too long to play. People will get bored with it".
Parker Brothers when turning down Mr. Darrow’s new board game, Monopoly
"Americans require a restful quiet in the moving-picture theater. Talking on the screen destroys the illusion. Devices for projecting the film actor’s speech can be prefaced, but the idea is not practical".
Thomas Edison, inventor of the motion picture in the New York Times, 1926
"Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers of the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and perhaps weigh 1 1/2 tons".
Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, March 1949