Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Thursday Thirteen #47

13 Dumb Predictions

(According to Uncle John's Biggest Ever Bathroom Reader)

1. "The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?" - Associates of NBC president David Sarnoff (responding to his recomendation, in the 1920s, that they invest in radio)

2. "I think there is a a world market for maybe five computers." - Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

3. "We don't like their sound, and guitar music in on the way out." - Decca Recording Company 1962 (rejecting the Beatles)

4. "Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." - Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929

5. "Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction." - Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872

6. "640K ought to be enough for anybody." - Bill Gates, 1981

7. "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 adhesive that led to 3-M Post-Its)

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

9. "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." - New York Times editorial, 1921 (about Robert Goddard's revolutionary rocket work)

10. "Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." - Popular Mechanics, 1949

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." - Bankers' comment to Debbi Fields (about her idea to start Mrs. Fields' Cookies)

12. "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 (after Alexander Graham Bell offered to sell them the rights to the telephone)

13. "Everything that can be invented has been invented." - Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899

Check here for more Thursday Thirteen. Especially check here for Mama Lilibeth's First Ever Official Thursday Thirteen. It's very, very good.

15 comments:

Shesawriter said...

Interesting predictions! :-) I love the ton-sized computers. :-)

Happy TT!

My Thursday Thirteen #10: Thirteen More Men Who Give Me Impure Thoughts

aftergrace said...

Alli, and Ren have proven #12totally false, if they are not texting on their cell phones, they are talking constantly on them.
#11-What do you mean no cookie stores??? Chewy, or crunchy-cookies rock!!!!

Melanie said...

Wow ~ I would love for everyone of those people to see today. Lack of vision!! Cool list!

Lilibeth said...

Makes you afraid to make any predictions, doesn't it. How fun.

Anonymous said...

It only goes to show, one should never make negative predictions. They are so very often wrong.

Anonymous said...

Oh how wrong they all were! Great TT.

izitjo said...

Hi, was just visiting and wanted to say how unusual it is to see a wife and mother write in her profile that she's a child of God first.

Thanks... be blessed

:)

Neen said...

If they only knew...

Darla said...

Haha! These are good to keep in mind the next time you encounter a naysayer. :)

Open Grove Claudia said...

I thought that Mp3s would never ever take off. The format is clunky, the sound isn't great and the files are big. Of course, I hate Apple so I never considered that they would change the market. Very stupid, eh?

Happy TT.

Melissa said...

awesome list! Wow! Really makes you think!

Unknown said...

Great list today! Thankfully one person had the vision to push on through!

Have a great day!

Qtpies7 said...

Those are the people who have kicked themselves in the rear for being stupid, right? LOL

cindy kay said...

Seriously? People really said those things? That is funny!

JAM said...

9. "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." - New York Times editorial, 1921 (about Robert Goddard's revolutionary rocket work)

Proof that the New York Times has been handled by idiots for almost 100 years. Now they're endorsing Clinton and McCain; still royally screwing up one dumb editorial at a time.